A friend and I recently caught this at Grimmfest in Manchester and could not believe they were screening it; to say it is low budget is an understatement as this is closer to home movies for production values (and I've seen better acting in Syfy originals)

The scenes in between the three stories were the 'highlight' for want of a better word - they obviously had the most effort go into them and the opening section was pretty promising, it looked well shot and as if it would lead into a different type of horror movie to the usual fare. Then we cut to the stories...

These 3 stories were badly acted, badly shot, badly written, and just bad. There is no other way to put it. The reviews about this being thoughtful because a zombie remembered his child clearly overlook how truly terrible every other aspect of the film was. I can only assume that the 78 10/10s that are currently keeping this film up at 7.4 are from cast and crew because no-one could ever watch this film and find it good let alone flawless.

I read a few reviews, some giving this movie a 4 Star review and then the there are the ones that gave this 10 stars with some @*%# about how others that gave this a low rating just didn't understand something about this movie. Well, this movie plain and simply gives proof that Britain should not be allowed to make, export or give advice when it comes to horror movies, and should only be allowed to make comedies.

This independent horror flick was shot in various locations around Barnsley and Sheffield on a micro budget, and is proof that low-budget movies are not necessarily bad movies. In fact, this one is pretty good within its constraints – well-written, pacy, atmospheric and lots of fun. In a dictionary, the word 'eschatology' is defined as: "any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters such as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc". Here, writer-director Damian Morter deliberately distorts the word to give his portmanteau film a rather intriguing and foreboding title.

The three stories are book-ended with a sequence set in the remote hilly woodland of South Yorkshire, where survivor Matthew (Tim McGill Grieveson) spends his days maintaining a makeshift compound and collecting corpses from the areas of civilisation far below. He carries the bodies aboard a wheelbarrow to his barricaded base, where he systematically cremates them. One day, an unexpected stranger, Cal (Damian Morter),stumbles into camp and collapses from exhaustion. Matthew discovers a journal among Cal's belongings which recounts three tales about the zombie apocalypse that has changed the world. Story 1 (Dead Inside) deals with the outbreak of the zombie virus, brought about by the arrival of a malevolent demon. The action focuses on a young family – the father is one of the first to be infected in the holocaust and returns home to stalk (or perhaps protect?) his wife and daughter. As the zombies grow in number it becomes clear there will be no happy ending here. Story 2 (The Dying Breed) moves further into the crisis. The decidedly un-heroic Alex first loses his girlfriend to an attack, then journeys across town to find his mother and sister. En route, he repeatedly refuses to assist other survivors, leaving them to their grisly fate, until he discovers that even his nearest and dearest have fallen victim to the virus. Finally, story 3 (A Father For The Dead) is set later still, with the number of survivors having dwindled to almost none. A psychiatrist is on the run in a car with his young son, who has been bitten and will soon become a zombie but – for now at least – remains human. Their escape takes them to the ruins of a farmhouse where they face an almighty fight against a horde of marauding zombies and equally dangerous paranoid human survivors.

There's no denying that several of the performances are semi-professional and somewhat wooden. Fortunately, Morter doesn't let us dwell on this too much, providing enough other stuff to distract our attention. There are some effective visuals and the electronic score creates a suitably unnerving atmosphere. The gore is generally well done, certainly on this budget. There are sufficient moments of gut-munching mayhem and gruesome dismemberment to keep genre addicts happy. The real strength of The Eschatrilogy is that it focuses on ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Yes, there's gore and guts and blood and so on, but the film always remembers to come back to the human element to give us something to identify with. Although the twist ending is a little too predictable from the off, and the acting in some segments is less than convincing, the film overall delivers upon its own modest aims. The spirit of George A. Romero pervades throughout the film. Whether or not Romero will ever see The Eschatrilogy no-one but him will know, but if he does I'm sure he'll give it the nod of approval. What better endorsement could any zombie film hope to receive?