Nerdly » ‘Project Z’ Review

09th Nov2023

‘Project Z’ Review

by Alain Elliott

Stars: Eili Harboe, Dennis Storhoi, Regina Tucker, Vebjorn Enger, Jonis Jesf, Iben Akerlie, Arthur Berning | Written and Directed by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken

Like many people, you might think you’ve seen everything when it comes to zombie movies. But there’s always somebody with a new idea, a fresh and original take on the horror genre. Films like One Cut of the Dead, Anna and the Apocalypse, and Train to Busan, have all added something new to the zombie movie, and this Norwegian production tries to do the same.

And Project Z is somewhat original. It takes things from various other movies to create something that is quite unique. To start with, this is a found footage movie, and there’s actually not a whole lot of found footage zombie movies. It doesn’t exactly play out like other films in that horror subgenre though, because it’s a movie about people making a movie. So it almost feels like a ‘making of’ at times, interspersed with ‘actual’ footage from the ‘real’ movie the characters are making. There is obviously some influence from the aforementioned One Cut of the Dead, but it feels far from a copy of that movie.

Let’s get the ‘bad’ out of the way first. Project Z often feels like a bunch of ideas thrown together but with no-one sure how to make those ideas into a cohesive film. It’s not like the movie is confusing or anything like that, it just feels like the story could have been told in a better way. By the time the end comes around you’ll wonder how exactly we ended up there.

And the ending isn’t anything like you expect it to be. Even at about three quarters of the way into the movie, I think you would struggle to predict where it goes for that last quarter.

Project Z is interesting because I’m sure it will split people that watch with half that love the first 75 minutes but not so much the last 15. And the other half who struggle with that first 75 but love the last 15. The last 15 minutes do indeed ramp things up a bit. They go crazier and harder, and arguably more fun. But, for me, there’s lots of enjoyment before the conclusion.

To begin with, the acting performances are all great. The group of actors all show good chemistry and are completely believable as this close-knit film-making team. Eili Harboe also starred as the lead role in the excellent Thelma, which you should check out if you haven’t already. Oh, and add the experienced Dennis Storhoi into the mix just improves things. There’s an ongoing joke in the movie about him starring in The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas (something the actor did do in real life), that works really well because of his acting ability and comedic timing. There’s plenty of good comedy throughout, and inbetween much of the messiness, there is also some clever writing here.

The film looks great too. This is no (obvious) low budget affair. There’s some decent use of the found footage style (and reasons for hen the camera is kept on), and some great camera work when we see the scenes from the film within a film. I can only see director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken going on to bigger things. There are actually a couple of decent scares too, helped by an often fantastic score, the bathroom scene in particular, was very creepy.

Project Z is a really cool, and original take on the zombie genre. A few issues stop it from becoming a classic such as One Cut of the Dead, but this is till worth checking out.