DOMAIN *** USA 2016 Dir: Nathaniel Atcheson 97 mins
Due to an epidemic of global proportions trying to wipe out most of the population, we meet a group of 7 people who have been placed in bunkers buried 30ft underground in a bid to make sure they survive and can not be contaminated. This group, and thousands of others, were chosen by lottery to survive in these bunkers equipt with everything they need to stay alive for the next 70 years plus if necessary. Although they are alone in their bunkers they are linked together in groups of 7 by a video interface system called Domain.
This is so they can communicate with each other, form relationships and work together as a team. Their main job being to monitor the statistics provided to them by their screens, in the hope that one day soon it will show that it is safe to leave. The people in this group go by the states they are from as their handles (seems blatantly lifted from Zombieland but we’ll ignore that for now), and start to notice things going wrong after they banish “Orlando” from their group for sounding off and just generally upsetting other members. At first they go about their normal business but then the bunkers start to malfunction and people start disappearing. This is when it makes quite a big plot turn and, although not wholly original, I thought it was a great twist and it did take me a bit by surprise. Due to the nature of the story which is very heavily dialogue and character based it’s lucky the characters are really well played and likeable. It features great performances by Nick Gomez from The Walking Dead and Kevin Sizemore from its sister series Fear The Walking Dead as well as Ryan Merriman (The Ring 2) and Britt Lower who seems to have taken a break from random Rom Coms. Nathaniel Atcheson has written and directed a quality story line with a great soundtrack (composed by Jonathan Snipes) the only thing that let it down a bit for me was the set itself as I thought the bunkers looked quite dated and old fashioned for something that’s supposed to be advanced technology plus some of the acting from the cast outside the bunkers was questionable but both gaffes can be easily overlooked, an enjoyable movie I could easily watch again.
Review by Sarah Budd