Review: Ravage Nation

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Ravage Nation (aka Ravage III: Ravage Nation)
Directed by Michael Moutsatsos
Dondi Inferno Productions
87 minutes, 2022

Before I even start, please note that the fact that this is the second chapter in the series should not matter, and I will explain below within the review.

 When idjits refuse to get mass vaxxed, as with the COVID virus, the disease has the chance to mutate. So far, we have been fortunate that until now, the mutations have been slightly lesser in severity. But what if they got worse, instead? That is the premise, in part, of this film.

Jake Scozzaro, Ed Gage

By 2036, most of the population has been wiped out by CV5., Let everyone thank the likes of Trump, DeSantis, Bobert, Greene, etc., for this. According to the text scrawl that opens the film, mothers gave birth to human mutations in the forms of beast-like creatures, which hunted humans. If they bite or even scratch you and you live, you turn into a flesh-eating zombie yourself in a mere 12 seconds. All this info and exposition is presented before the credits (it also appears in the trailer, below).

The mutants tend to be people with either extreme white make-up on, or animal heads (masks), and they go around either capturing and killing humans on their own, or murder them in gangs, often with axes or sledgehammers, for some reason: a pragmatic choice may be that because the mutants wear thick gloves, I am guessing to help with the make-up expenses, rather than having to show the misshapen hands. If this is true, I respect that.

Rather than a narrative storyline, we see vignettes of people being killed, many bound up beforehand. The film is mostly monochrome, usually black and white, and the slaughters in red. These fragments are not exceedingly long, so if you tire easily, a new one is coming up very shortly.

Because Act 1 of this film is episodic, it really does not matter that there were two previous releases. There are very few returning characters, except perhaps one of the main ones from the previous releases, Dean (Jake Scozzaro), who has multiple personality disorder (they are legion, including one from my home town of Brooklyn, NY) – think of Split (2017), without The Beast – perhaps derived from PTSD resulting from the effects of the first two films (which I have not seen), after what happened to his family, shown in the prologue. He dominates nearly the entire Act 2. Amusingly, he kills a chained zombie who wears a tee-shirt that says “Vaccinated.” Perhaps a Right-Wing commentary, as they claim you will catch COVID even if you had your shot(s)? That is true because too many, as I said, have not had their shots to neutralize it communally. Also, one character discusses how COVID was invented by the Chinese as a chemical weapon, a solid Republican talking point. Again, I politically digress, but at least you know where I stand…

There is some humor here and there, seemingly to revolve around a ventriloquist’s doll called Marv, who not only Dean has conversations with, but so does a guy named Stan (director Michael Moutsatsos), who not only talks to Marv (and hears answers), but also to imaginary people. When Dean and Stan get together at a picnic table with Marv to play cards, it feels like sitting in on an ad-lib, off-the-wall conversation.

Another returning character is survivalist Silver (Ed Gage) who is into martial arts; however, his appearance in Act 3 is more of an extended cameo, though he does get to show off his “moves” with fists and a sword.

Another aspect I found of interest is both the external and internal actions of the two food groups, as it were. The mutants kill humans randomly but like to eat babies. This leads me to a question: if a mutant, also known as a hybrid, eats a human, is that cannibalism, as they are both the same and varied species? Anyway, the mutants mostly seem to work together (not counting the lone wolf zombies who are mindless eaters, as they should be) to slaughter the humans they consider inferior. However, the humans kill mutants, zombies, and other humans, the latter for the competition of food, I guess. In this scenario, the mutants seem more cohesive, socially.

While there are some squeamishable scenarios, the gore looks decent, but, though the level of violence is quite strong, shown steadily throughout the entire film. For me, I did not mind the monochrome, but the way the red filter is used gives a “tell” that a kill is about to occur, kind of ate away at the surprise value, even if it was obvious what was coming.

The ending is a bit up in the air, but considering the storyline, such as it is, it makes sense to leave it open ended, because a title card at the end informs of a Ravage Domination sequel. There is not an easy resolve for the world situation as it depicts; no fixes. Sort of like the end of The Planet of the Apes (1968) with Charlton Heston yelling on the beach, or I guess a better choice may be Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Though the film occasionally feels amateurish and cobbled together (yet it has won numerous festival awards), it certainly is entertaining. I may have to go back and watch the first release, and see the origins of the events that are recounted here.

IMBD listing HERE