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Released by: AGFA
Released on: April 26th, 2022.
Director: Emily Hagins
Cast: Rose Kent-McGlew, Tiger Darrow
Year: 2006
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Pathogen – Movie Review:
The 2006 zombie film Pathogen was conceived by writer/director/producer Emily Hagins when she was only twelve years old and officially released when she was fifteen. Shot entirely in her home town of Austin, Texas, this sixty-six minute labor of love was made with very little money and a whole lot of enthusiasm.
When the movie begins, a clumsy janitor does something he shouldn’t and because of this, a contaminant is let loose from a biological research lab and soon gets into the city’s water supply (there’s an unusual amount of water drinking in this movie for that reason). Whatever was in that lab sample is bad news, because it winds up turning people who drink the contaminated water into mindless zombies.
A middle-school student named Dannie (Rose Kent-McGlew) gets hip to this threat pretty quickly and proves savvy enough to grab herself an axe and a few friends like Sam (Alec Herskowitz), Christine (Tiger Darrow), Cameron (Tony Vespe), Stacy (Alex Schroeder) and Jen (Estrella Gonzales) to form a small army intent on battling off the zombie hordes.
Shot on a camcorder and edited on iMovie, Hagins’ directorial debut is a love letter to old school zombie movies from the past but filtered through the lens of a teenager not even old enough to drive car. There’s a seriously charming naiveté to all of this that makes the film completely loveable, warts and all. The acting is as awkward as you’d expect given that it’s cast primarily with a bunch of kids who were, at the time, Hagins’ classmates (though she does get a few adults in the film to play adult roles, rather than try and pass off teenagers as grownups, a rarity in backyard horror movies like this), but it’s just so much fun to watch and clearly made with such spirit and enthusiasm that you can’t help but love it.
The movie is also way more ambitious than you’d probably expect it to be. The story might be on the clichéd side for sure, but there are different subplots that Hagins’ script manages to properly weave together and resolve before the end credits hit the screen. The cinematography and lighting is obviously not on the level of the latest Hollywood blockbuster but there is some attention to detail and care put into things here. They also shot the movie with an actual boom mic rather than using the microphone in the camera. The makeup effects are also pretty fun, again, obviously low budget but creative and plenty amusing to see.
Pathogen – Blu-ray Review:
AGFA brings Pathogen to Region Free Blu-ray famed at 1.33.1 fullframe and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Preserved from the original digital video master, this looks about as good as you can realistically expect it to, which isn’t amazing but which certainly isn’t bad at all given the film’s no-budget roots and the equipment that Hagins and company had on hand to work with. Detail is more than acceptable under the circumstances and colors generally look fine. The limitations of the source material are obvious throughout but all in all, this looks fine.
Audio chores are handled by an English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 track. Optional subtitles are provided in English only. Again, limitations are obvious at times but for a movie made with little money by a bunch of kids, the audio is more than fine. Some dialogue is a bit muffled but overall the levels are balanced pretty well.
Extras start off with an audio commentary with director Emily Hagins and Bleeding Skull’s Annie Choi that is a lot of fun to listen to and which is also quite interesting. They cover some of the predictive elements of the movie, how Hagins came to write, direct, produce and shoot the movie in addition to doing a whole lot more, how she started formulating ideas for the movie when she was ten and started moving on it when she was twelve, learning about making a movie as she was doing it, wanting the project to be more than just getting some friends together and goofing off with a camcorder, working with adults and kids in the cast, having to do pickup shots after principal photography wrapped, Hagins love of zooms, how the film is an interesting document made before the rise of social media, how everything about the kids' acting felt very natural when she made the movie but seems so awkward now and lots more.
The Cast And Crew Q&A From The 2006 Theatrical Premiere featurette is a seven minute segment where Hagins and cast members Tony Vespe, Tiger Darrow, Alec Herskowitz, and Estrella Gonzales speak in front of a very enthusiastic crowd about how long it took to make the movie, what influenced them to make the movie, creating some of the effects, what it was like acting in the movie and more.
The nine minute short film, Party Killer, made by Hagins in 2007, is also included on the disc. It shows a gloved killer going over photos of different young women and teenagers, before the introducing us to some of the girls in the picture, all hanging out doing their nails and gossiping before a party starts. Some guys show up, then a girl named Crystal disappears. They hear a scream, and from there it turns out that Crystal is dead and a killer is loose. It works on the same level as the feature, it's charming and made with no money and lots of heart and enthusiasm. It's also quite a bit more polished than most amateur films made by high schoolers!
Zombie Girl: The Movie is a ninety-one feature-length documentary made in 2009 that covers the making of Pathogen. Directed by Justin Johnson, Aaron Marshall and Erik Mauck, this piece opens with a confused Hagins trying to explain the type of shot she wants to get for a certain scene before then working with some actors and crew members. As this plays out, you get a good sense of what went into making the movie, who did what behind the scenes, where the crew had to get creative to overcome budgetary restraints and the love of genre films that Hagins and her friends have. Her parents, who worked on the movie, are interviewed here as are some of her classmates and, of course, Hagins herself. Lord Of The Rings was clearly a huge inspiration for her, she talks about writing to Peter Jackson and getting a response from him, and how he got her in touch with Harry Knowles to help with any questions she might have about filmmaking. From then we learn about how she actually held proper auditions for Pathogen, secured different locations to use for the shoot, what it was like on set, the makeup effects and how much fun and how much work the project turned out to be.
Menus and chapter selection options are provided on the disc as well and it comes packaged with some cool reversible cover sleeve art.
Pathogen - The Final Word:
You don’t normally think of zombie movies as charming but Pathogen is just that. AGFA has done a really nice job bringing this to Blu-ray with a great documentary covering the making of the movie, an interesting interview with the one person wrecking crew behind the film and more. Recommended!