Review: Bridge of the Doomed

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Bridge of the Doomed
Directed by Michael Su
Mahal Empire; FilmCore; Spicy Ramen Productions; Blaen-Y-Maes Bootleg Films; Wicked Monkey Pictures; Gravitas Ventures
82 minutes, 2022
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With four films out this year, director Michael Su is proving to be quite prolific. And the level of carnage he displayed in his recent Death Count  (2022) shows that he is not afraid to step up to the blood and gore. So. it makes sense that he would jump on the popularity of the zombie genre, especially after Army of the Dead (2021), and put his toe in the evisceration.

A group of soldiers are given orders to hold a bridge (A Bridge Too Close?) to make sure no one or any thing crosses it, especially since they are trying to curtail the zombie apocalypse. The film does not waste any time giving us what we are waiting for, full on splatter. There is a lovely mix of practical SFX and digital (including the erasure of star Robert LaSardo’s infamous neck tattoos).

Kate Watson

Most the soldier at the bridge range from a couple of interesting characters to some expendables. The lead in the film is one of them, Sgt. Hernandez (Kate Watson). Su likes to pick strong women characters and he does well here with Hernandez’s tough as nails yet likeable sergeant.

The zombies are not slow nor fast: they stumble along, but they are quick at the grab, and consistently overwhelm their prey with numbers as they seem to always travel in groups. This middle tone of fast vs. slow is a nice touch and gives the chance to be viewer-friendly to both sides of the debate.

The film is essentially broken into two parts which are intermingled. First, there is the HQ, which is run by General Vazquez (LaSardo), with some cameo work by Michael Paré as Colonel Charon (great choice of name: Charon was the ferryman of mythology who brought your soul across the River Styx). Nice to see Paré work, as always, even in cameo form, though there was a time he walked Streets of Fire. Just because it is the headquarters, however, does not mean it is immune from the occasional zombie horde attack.

Robert LaSardo

The second is at the titular bridge, which looks like at one time it was a railroad crossing. Either way, it is over a very treacherous and fierce river, but not as much as the munchers on the other side. Also on the wrong side of the river are a bunch of survivalists living in a commune without much brains among them. Political commentary about the right wing? Among this group is Susan (Sarah French; she was the lead in Dead Count,). A third of the way in, I am going to assume that at some point, the two groups of antagonists (soldiers and survivors), will work together.

And as if a multitude of teethers were not bad enough, there is some kind of growling troll under the very bridge that the army is to defend. Just keeps getting better when it strikes. The SFX good nice and gooey, and as I said earlier, there is a lot of it.

There is no reason given that I could tell (or missed) about why the zombie romp started, but honestly, does it really matter? Radioactive satellites from space? Chemicals? We pick up the story well into the effects, and that is what matters.

There is a very slight overtone of religiosity here, as talk among the survivors discuss the “End of Times” and “judgment.” However, it is not preachy or annoying, even for this atheist. It is more questioning what is going on in a wider scheme, than pointing a finger.

Michael Paré

The main cast handles the roles extremely well, and some of the tertiary ones not so much, but they are the equivalent of “Star Trek’s” “red shirts” and are really only there to, in the words of the original Willard (1971), “tear ‘em apart!”

One of the aspects I like about director Su is that he does not follow the formula of Act 1 to introduce the characters, Act 2 to present the situation, and Act 3 to contain the main brunt of the violence. No, he picks it up right from the beginning and keeps it cropping up throughout the film, actually making it more suspenseful than less because it could come at any time. There is a bit of exposition here and there, but it certainly does not get in the way of the “yum-yum-eat-‘em-ups.” Filmed in Nevada with a nicely diverse cast. I am quickly becoming a Su fan.

IMDB listing HERE