| | Capsule Review
Mulberry Street (2007)
Directed by Jim Mickle.
Cast: Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Bo Corre, Tim House, Larry Fleischman, Larry Medich, Javier Picayo, Antone Pagan, Lou Torres, John Hoyt.
2007 85 minutes
Rated: (for violence/gore and language).
Reviewed by Dustin Putman, November 10, 2007.
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"Mulberry Street" looks like guerilla filmmaking on a shoestring budget, and that's because it was. Shot on location in New York City with a very specific post-9/11 outlook of the world, director Jim Mickle deserves credit for the scope he has been able to achieve with minimal resources. When a creaky apartment building becomes the epicenter of a rat disease outbreak that turns its victims into furry, whiskered zombies, the various tenants must fight for their own survival. Meanwhile, the disease spreads throughout the city and news reports suggest that help is far from being on the way. It's doubtful that "Mulberry Street" would exist, at least in this form, were it not for 2003's " 28 Days Later." From the grainy shot-on-DV cinematography, to the jerky camera movements, to the aesthetic look of the zombies, that picture's imprint is all over this one. While the naturalistic character work is above-average for a horror film of this nature, it is the genre aspect that suffers. With hyper-active editing and camerawork that doesn't stay still for longer than a second at a time, "Mulberry Street" is too frenetic to always be comprehensible, and that lessens the impact of the scares.
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