'Blood Highway' is a glimpse of something good

Blood Highway (2017)
Starring: Herlin Navarro, Kevin O. Peterson, Jack Shipley, Lily Rebecca Ramras, Kyla Geyer, Scott Sederquist, and Eddie Ascolillo
Director: Joseph Dwyer
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A pair of guns-for-hire (Peterson and Navarro) take revenge on a mad scientist (Shipley) and his psychotic hirelings (Sederquist and Ascolillo) as a zombie outbreak is spreading across the nation.

"Blood Highway" feels more like an excerpt from a longer movie than an actual short film. It seems to assume we have knowledge of the relationships between various characters, and there are stray references that are beyond what is reasonable even for an extreme in media res approach to story telling. Further, there's no discernable end to the story being told here; the encounter is resolved, but the main characters go stumbling off down the road with literal Hell at their heels,  three different subplots are begun during it, and there's one that seems left over from before the start of the film that remains open. Plus--the one highway in the film that doesn't seem particularly bloody.

All that said, what we have a sample of here looks like it could be a really good movie with a vibe that's best described as a cross between a gritty crime drama and horror film from the 1960s--as if Mario Bava had directed a George Romero-style zombie movie--with a John Carpenter/Goblins-esque electronic score. (That said, the film is clearly supposed to be set in modern day, since there are a couple kids posting pictures of themselves online using their smart phones.)

Sadly, although "Blood Highway" seems like a teaser for something yet to come that "something" does not appear to be anywhere in our future. (Even this webpage feels like there's more, but there isn't.) 

Take a few minutes to check out the film right now. It's bound to put you in the mood for more zombies!