IT STAINS THE SANDS RED, directed by Colin Minihan, is a unique take on the zombie film. In fact, for most of the movie, there is only one zombie and a handful of characters. In the film, Molly, a former stripper, and Nick, her thug boyfriend, are traveling to an air base in order to meet Nick’s friend so they can all get away to Mexico. The zombie apocalypse has just started and everyone is trying to make it to safety.

After some car trouble, Nick and Molly get stranded in the desert. While cell phones still work in this scenario, the desert is not the ideal place to make a call and Nick is not the best partner to have in the zombie apocalypse. Molly is left alone in the desert and a zombie follows her on her journey to the air base by way of scent from Molly’s menstruation. This is where the film turns into a weird mix of Castaway and Fido.

On the journey through the desert, a bad thing happens. It’s rape. The rape scene seems completely unnecessary to the plot of the film as it isn’t even a turning point for Molly’s character as the zombie saves her. Rape is usually such a generic way for the scream queen to suddenly change and get revenge, but she tells her zombie friend that “Sometimes bad things happen to good people and we just need to get over it.” Rape is treated so nonchalantly in this film that it speaks volumes for the filmmakers.

Aside from that, Molly does have some inner turmoil that she works through on her way to the air base, developing and changing her character to the end of the film, like a true scream queen. IT STAINS THE SANDS RED is an entertaining mix of comedy and dread, but the rape scene is its downfall. You can skip that scene and the characters involved and still have the same movie.

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