Staycation is a pandemic-era comedy/thriller that hits its mark
by Nav Qateel
The fairly recent Covid Pandemic was rich with potential ideas for filmmakers to get creative over, and provide a wealth of material for them to get their teeth into, and I had always pictured things like horror or thrillers and the like to be tapped for decent entertainment.
Comedy sci-fi horror Staycation has gone a different route with a mix of ideas that center around showing the story develop through social media rather than primarily through a standard camera lens. If you’ve seen the excellent horror movie Unfriended and how it was handled then you’ll have a general idea what Staycation director Russ Emanuel was looking to achieve as far the medium in which the story flows through.
There’s a new virus in town and goes by the name of “Nix,” and while Covid would eventually prove to be more bark than bite in the end, Nix is the real deal, turning people into shambling zombies. This pandemic is a worldwide phenomenon, with scientists all over the world looking for a cure.
On our side trying to create a vaccine is Professor Edward Bellows (Sean Kenney), and the good professor has apparently started smoking, but the way his new habit is handled is just like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! where he “picked the wrong day to quit smoking.” I’m not entirely sure if this was intentional humor, but it was funny nonetheless, like many scenes in the amusing effort.
Staycation opens on riots in the streets followed by a TV interview where the professor is being grilled about the virus by tough journalist Grace Baxter (Olivia d’Abo). This leads into a couple talking over the internet to one another and as their part of the story unfolds we discover exactly what happens to anyone with the virus as it progresses through the body turning them into zombies. We get to see this happen suddenly to the woman as she talks to her boyfriend who’s stuck on the other side of the world. The change is rather sudden but the effects are fantastic for a low budget affair.
There are many cuts from the likes of YouTube and TikTok videos as people share home remedies to supposedly help with Nix, but best of all is the Alex Jones type vitamin ads for “Big D Klown Vitamins.” Comedy gold. There are lots of zany cuts like this sprinkled throughout the film, with things like a deliberately badly dubbed ad for the “Ninja Academy” that harken back to the old kung fu flicks, giving a Kentucky Fried Movie vibe to the entire film.
There’s a scene near the end of Staycation where at the lab they’re testing a vaccine on four subjects, and after it all goes haywire one of the infected is charging at a security guard. He’s blasting his gun at the poor infected woman but she ignores the bullets and keeps running. This scene was hysterical and must be seen to be appreciated.
Venessa the Contessa, sole member of the Neighborhood Watch Committee with an amusing sign in her home declaring that “My cat and I talk shit about you,” was another wonderful character. In fact the film is populated with so many great characters that I couldn’t possibly list them all.
They are each acted well, bringing the characters to life in a way that suited a film of this nature. Holding this amusing and complex story together was Emile Haris’s script, and making sense of it all was a job well done by director Russ Emanuel. I suspect this was a tricky film to piece together as it had so many moving parts, including animated scenes.
There’s a tale of morality, big pharma and corrupt government jumbled up in Staycation, however I concentrated on the humor because after living through an actual pandemic this seemed the better option for me personally.
This appears to be a personal film that many people were extremely passionate about and it comes across in each performance. Clearly not all were professional actors, yet they gave it their all, making me appreciate their performance even more. Staycation is absolutely worth seeing especially if you have a good sense of humor.
Nav’s Score: 7.5/10
