Virus: 32

We are back amongst the zombies in Virus: 32 though with an oddity that they take a 32 second break which gives people a chance, usually to escape. It’s a curious idea.

Opening with a wonderful long take that introduces the viewer to the neighbourhood and what is to come we settle on Tata (Pilar Garcia) and her mother Iris (Paula Silva), the former having just been dropped off at short notice by father Javi (Franco Rilla) as she is off to work. Not having much of an option Iris takes Tata with her, sneaking her into the vast Neptune club where she is a security guard. With a background of trouble in the city and tv news reports of incidents, Iris starts her shift leaving Tata playing.

The lights go out and Tata goes missing and with the walkie-talkie battery almost out concern starts take hold. Using her access to the building’s CCTV Iris search’s the building just as the zombies are starting to break their way into the club.

A chance encounter between a zombie and an unfortunate cat and Iris notices that after a kill the zombie is docile for 32 seconds. A terrific well-judged and very tense chase around a locker room and Iris encounters Luis (Daniel Hendler) whose wife Mimi (Sofía González) is a zombie – tied to a wheelchair and ready to give birth – chomping at the bit. Luis isn’t quite the good fellow he first appears trading Iris’s help for information about where Tata is. Iris doesn’t have any choice but to help Luis.

Virus 32 is very much not a sum of its parts with some brilliant scenes and sequences with very imaginative camerawork. The 32 second post kill pause is an odd one that as far as my Spanish and reading go isn’t properly explained in the film, though as a dramatic tool does heighten tension. As such it doesn’t quite work as a fluid film more several very good scenes that are joined by an interlude. That does jar a little though not enough to really disturb the viewer.

Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernández (co-written with Juma Fodde) has a good eye for a shot making full use of the potential of the hand-held camera, complemented by a very good score and sound design. On the kill front the zombies are nothing to write home about not deviating much from the norm. Nevertheless Virus 32 keeps the South American horror express on the rails by trying to do something different within a very well-worn genre.

Virus: 32 is available exclusively on Shudder now.