Jackal & Hide (2024)
Plot: Two rival gangs are at war, with one kidnapping and torturing the other’s boss and wife. In a desperate attempt to save them, a rescue group band together to free the boss whilst vastly outnumbered, and a fight to the death soon ensues.
Before Dead Zero, director Andy Gray and several members of the team worked together on the independent action short Jackal & Hide, which is essentially an exercise in how to do a lot with very little.
The premise is wonderfully straightforward: two rival gangs are at war and when one gang kidnaps the other’s boss and his wife, a rescue team is put together to get them back. Naturally, they’re ridiculously outnumbered and things don’t exactly go according to plan.
Lee Alan Donaldson plays Ricky and has the right physical presence for this type of movie. He’s suitably intimidating without turning the character into a cartoon, and Charlie Rich also helps give the film the feeling that these characters have lives outside of what we’re seeing. But let’s face it, we’re here for the action.
It’s the finale when the movie really comes alive. The final fight is brutal, messy and appropriately chaotic as our heroes find themselves completely surrounded and essentially have to punch their way out. It’s not one of those overly slick fight scenes where everyone politely waits for their turn to attack either. People get hit, knocked down and exhausted and there’s a real sense that our gang might actually be in trouble.
You can tell this wasn’t an easy sequence to put together either, and considering the limited resources they had, everyone involved deserves credit. There’s a rawness to the action that actually works in the film’s favour and makes the fights feel more physical.
There are obviously limitations due to the budget, but Jackal & Hide doesn’t try to pretend it’s anything more than scrappy indie flick. It concentrates on what it can do well: tough characters, practical action and keeping things moving before giving us the big fight we’ve been waiting for.
Overall, Jackal & Hide is a gritty and entertaining little action flick made by people who clearly love the genre. It’s not trying to change the world; it just wants to give us some tough guys beating the crap out of each other.
Dead Zero (2026)
Plot: Zero Squad, an elite military team, infiltrate a research compound shrouded in mystery. As the squad uncovers the facility’s dark secrets they face a deadly enemy that blurs the line between science and horror.
Next up is Director Andy Gray’s Dead Zero which mixes military action with zombies, practical effects and plenty of gunplay, so I’m pretty much sold.
The story follows an elite military team called Zero Squad who are sent to infiltrate a mysterious research facility in the English countryside. What should be a relatively straightforward mission soon goes pear shaped (how do things even go pear shaped?) when they discover some dodgy experiments have been taking place and before you know it, we’ve got biological experiments, zombies and our heroes fighting for survival.
It’s not exactly reinventing the zombie genre, but it doesn’t need to and I mean that as a compliment. You can see influences from the likes of Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, but the military angle gives Dead Zero its own flavour. I also loved the opening POV of the infected running through the woods which gave me some serious Evil Dead vibes.
Lee Alan Donaldson plays Lucius Bane with Charlie Rich as Carlyle and Marton Virag as Tarik, but this is very much an ensemble piece rather than having one unstoppable hero killing everything in sight.
Donaldson also co-wrote and produced the film and you can tell everyone involved has a genuine appreciation for old-school action movies. We get guns, hand-to-hand combat, stunt work and, most importantly, practical effects. I’ve said it a million times but practical effects will nearly always win me over compared to an overload of CGI, especially with horror.
The zombies look suitably nasty and there’s a pleasingly gritty feel to everything. This isn’t trying to be some deep meditation on humanity where everyone sits around discussing what it means to be alive for two hours. We’ve got soldiers, zombies and guns. Sold.
There are a lot of characters and various story threads going on and we don’t get a huge amount of background on everyone just yet, but that’s understandable as this is apparently going to be part of a larger story. At around half an hour, this is essentially our introduction to the characters and world, so by the time it ends we’re really only getting started.
This obviously doesn’t have a $100 million budget, but it doesn’t feel like anyone involved is using that as an excuse. Instead, they use practical effects and stunt work to give the film a bigger scale than you might expect.
Overall, Dead Zero is rough around the edges in places, but it’s got zombies, gunfights and a team of people clearly having a blast making an old-school action-horror movie. I look forward t seeing the full feature if that comes to fruition.