The Control Group Is An Impressive Romp Into The World Of Psychotic Scientists, Insane Asylums, And Bird People

The living dead always look so pissed. Image via ravenousmonster.com

The Control Group via Point And Shoot Productions really is an interesting twist on the old story line of college kids getting kidnapped, then get drugged up and locked in an abandoned insane asylum by a mad scientist, people dying and then coming back as insane but coherent zombies while secrete a government agency records it, all the while hoping to perfect the drug used on the students as a means of interrogating foreign spies. Hold on to your butts, it’s going to get weird.

So yes, the movie starts off with a group of college students who, upon leaving a party, are all kidnapped and placed in random points of an old asylum. All are drugged with a substance that has them seeing hallucinations and keeps them in a state of panic while guards dressed as “bird people” are trying to kill them off. Everything is  being monitored by a government agency who is actually using the group to test out their latest drug which is supposed to trigger foreign terrorists to confess whatever they need to confess after seeing the disturbing hallucinations brought on by the drug. However, things go to hell when one of the test subjects dies, and then decides to not stay dead, but rise again and take over the joint. Not only the subject, but anyone who dies in the asylum turns into very coherent, sometimes mouthy, zombies who just want to kill everything (like you do.) This poses to be a problem, not only for the students and the evil government agency, but for the plot as well.

So the test is compromised, people are dying then coming back, people are constantly complaining, and then the scientist in charge decides to reveal a new part to the story, one that involves a serial rapist, pedophile, and all around guy who needs extensive dental work, known as The Patient, who invented a chair hundreds of years ago that steals and contains souls in another plain of existence. You don’t really find out why he does it, or why the mad scientist wants it, or what you do with the souls (do you walk them? Feed them?) only that it’s really important to the film. The soul of The Patient is revived with strange results. Alliances are formed, people who normally wouldn’t work together do to stop the bad guy, an innocent soul is saved, and the survivors contemplate how to go on with their lives after their experience. Fade out after a few jokes and then the end.

The plot has some huge holes but the story line, when it’s reigned in, is interesting and very creative. The special effects are stellar, the interactions between characters isn’t always smooth but it gets the job done, and there are even a few laughs thrown in. if you like weird science/horror  films, you’ll enjoy The Control Group.

The Control Group

Point And Shoot Productions

Starring Brad Dourif, Ross Destiche, Jenna Enemy

Original Trailer can be seen here: