Horror Short Review: ‘American Virus’ (2015)

When someone pops up in the entertainment industry with a famous family member, you have a level of expectation for them. Fair or not, depending on the level of ability of the family member, that bar is therefore set for that sibling, offspring, etc. Kathryn Eastwood, Clint Eastwood’s daughter, wrote a horror short called American Virus (part of the Virus of the Dead anthology), so my expectations were pretty high, considering her father is an accomplished actor and filmmaker. Sometimes, the apples not only land farther from the tree but proceed to roll down the hill into another county.

American Virus was directed by Shane Ryan and written by Ryan alongside Kathryn Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Ryan, Adrian Baez, and Nite, Nite’s (2017) Chad Meisenheimer and Tommie Vegas. Now, this short film was desultory and chaotic, so bare with me. I believe the story follows a group of people who are bioterrorists. Their goal is to start an infection in a big city to teach the world a lesson, I think? It’s not that clear, honestly. The characters have no names and they are running through the city with a camera.

The thing I had the most trouble with was connection in this film. These people are running through the city. Are people infected, are they not? It’s hard to tell because they are literally running through random people, dirtied and bloodied so it made no sense. It all comes to a head in the apartment of the leader of the group and people start to back out of the plan. Cue bad camera angles and even worse dialogue and you have this short film. I don’t mean to shit all over someone’s work, but there has to be at least one redeemable element to make it a successful short. Either the story, dialogue, acting or filming has to pull the dead weight of the weaker links.

Even the score composition was overly hectic and repetitive to the point of needing to turn my sound down. The concept is good and the idea is fresh to look at a zombie apocalypse through the eyes of the people responsible. I can get behind an idea like that if it has strength in at least one aspect that I listed before. But American Virus unfortunately falls short of the expectations that were laid upon it by name alone.