Verdict
Summary
It feels authentic for what it aims for, and even though I had some questions after it was over, I would recommend it to fans of low budget indies because it conjures up a world with unique settings, good make-up effects work, and an ingrained sense of the end of all things. It’s grim, but effective, and the performers all go for it. It never really had a false note, as far as I could tell.
Plot:
A man wakes up in a devastated apocalyptic world with no memory and is captured by a group of marauders who seem to know more than he does about his identity.
Review:
It is the year 2101 and earth has become a barren wasteland populated with three kinds of inhabitants: human survivors – who’ve become cannibals – and two sorts of zombies. One type of zombie (in the Southern Hemisphere) are known as the Dry Ones, and in the Northern Hemisphere there’re other sorts of zombies who apparently aren’t so dry. A man (played by Esteban Prol) wakes up in a dumping ground for Dry (basically walking skeletons or entirely decomposed) zombies, and he has no memory of where he is or what has happened to the world, and he’s rescued by a crusty marauder who gives him the quick lowdown: The world is FUBAR and even though civilizations still exist way beyond the reach of reasonable comprehension (planes are still flying around doing goodness knows what), most survivors must work together to forage for food. When the marauder names this guy Perro (“dog”), he takes him to his small outpost and thrusts him into a disgusting prison cell where another body is decomposing. Turns out Perro is on the menu! In the outpost are a few other cannibals, including a mute young woman named Iris (Fini Bocchino) who immediately tries to help Perro by setting him free, which propels the story into a chase as the other marauders take pursuit of him to a thrashed building where the corpse of a woman is hanging. As Perro regains his memory, he realizes that the hanging woman was his wife – and he’s the one who hung her – and Iris is his daughter. But all of this information comes a little too late as Perro becomes infected and slowly becomes one of the Dry Ones, and his pursuers come after him full-force. His daughter Iris will be caught in the middle of the skirmish.
A grime-caked apocalyptic thriller that reminded me just a little bit of Luc Besson’s Le Dernier Combat and another South American apocalyptic film (which was reprehensible and appalling) called Scavenger, I Am Toxic creates its own little universe and dwells in it for 80 minutes. It feels authentic for what it aims for, and even though I had some questions after it was over, I would recommend it to fans of low budget indies because it conjures up a world with unique settings, good make-up effects work, and an ingrained sense of the end of all things. It’s grim, but effective, and the performers all go for it. It never really had a false note, as far as I could tell. From co-writer and director Pablo Pares.
The DVD from MVD Visual is available now. No special features are included, and only the Spanish language track with English subtitles is available.
