‘Uncontained’ (2025)
- kinotesreviews
- May 4
- 3 min read

‘Uncontained’ follows ‘the man’ (Morley Nelson) a drifter forging through a wintry wilderness. Chancing upon a well secured house in the woods, the man discovers a young boy and his little sister. Surmising they have been left to fend for themselves, the man takes it upon himself to protect the young children, as a dark and terrifying hoard of infected roams the surrounding woods.
To an extent, the majority of zombie horror films follow a clear and simple structure. With the genre developing for almost a hundred years now, it would be difficult to imagine a new entry in the pantheon to contain a unique and wholly singular experience.
Nonetheless, setting before us director, writer and star of ‘Uncontained’ Morley Nelson breaks onto the scene with a novel concept. As the drifter, Nelson explores his surroundings and visually delivers the current state of affairs. Even if a little ambiguous and muddled, we’re told the world is locked down as people have become infected as a result of an experimental drug. Becoming feral, the infected must be avoided or destroyed.
Expanding the zombie lore, the man discovers the little boy he is protecting is also infected, with the boy’s dog serving as a sort of seizure dog, warning him before he is about to turn, so the boy can lock himself away. Turning back thereafter, the boy tries to manage his condition.
Showing up later is the children’s mother Melanie (Courtney Blythe Turk). Fuzzy on the details, it isn’t made clear on where she’s been, but her the reunion with her children is joyous. Cohabiting and trying to fix up the broken down car, the man plans to travel northwards. Thwarted, the house is encroached upon by a local gun wielding militia, in search of the group leaders daughter. The story inevitably leads to a climactic beat down sequence.
After the man discovers he is infected and turns back just like the little boy, he slashes his own throat to induce death, to reanimate and go on a rampage and take out the militia holding down the house.
Packed with action sequences, the film doesn’t quite drum up enough thrills to garner excitement. Cut together with a few too many awkward pauses, the suspense soon dissipates and the film feels it’s length. Rather than generating tension and angst, it feels a little too peaceful for a zombie takeover and too somber for fear of infection.
Too quiet and peaceful, the setting of the film presents a scene too serene for a pandemic, pushing the survival mode to the forefront of the feature, with generating electricity as the utmost of the survivors concerns, rather than avoiding the undead.
Also playing out a few subplots in the background, the narrative feels disjointed as it’s broken up unevenly and seemingly without reason. As the peripheral characters have little to nothing to do with the main cast, it feels like time wasted that could have been better devoted to a sequence of the undead breaching the house.
A little too uneventful for a zombie film, ‘Uncontained’ does have a few unique ideas here and there, but it fails to bring everything together as it devotes time to unnecessary and fruitless sub-plots that only detract from the main event. Best left locked up in the forest from whence it came, ‘Uncontained’ has little chance of becoming viral.
Score: 1/4
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