Review of Panic in Year Zero!

On what promises to be just another family camping trip, Milland and Hagen, with their teenage children Avalon and Mitchel, set out bright and early one morning with their pull-along camper and head for the mountains of California. Before reaching their destination, they hear rumbling from the sky and see a massive mushroom cloud over the area of their home. In order to check on grandma, they begin driving back(!), but soon realize that everyone else is driving away from the explosion and so they decide to retreat to the mountains as they'd originally planned. Milland strays from the main drag in order to take advantage of uniformed storekeepers who won't be gouging prices on things like food, gas and weaponry. Eventually, they set up housekeeping in a cave until they can determine whether it's safe to go back home. In the meantime, societal order has begun to break down and there are a few dastardly types who may complicate matters. Milland (who also directed, one of five films he helmed) is quite autocratic as the father. He predicts that people will begin to act irrationally and illegally and doesn't waste too much time joining in, truth be told! However, he does always attempt to pay for the things he takes at least. Hagen mostly gets to fret and fuss about everything, though she does have one moment of minor action with a gun. The script keeps forcing her to say things like "It's all right" over and over. Avalon is reasonably appealing, though it's hard to buy him as Milland's offspring! Mitchel is a thorough annoyance from her first frame till practically her last. Freeman shows up fairly late in the game as the bedraggled victim of repeated gang rape. Fortunately, within a day of being discovered, she has flawless bouffant hair and heavy eye makeup in place, business as usual. Who needs electricity? Bakalyan plays a thug who threatens Milland & Co. more than once along with his two buddies. Garland is a shop owner who can't catch a break. The film is clearly a low budget AI time-killer, but Milland manages to infuse it with a certain amount of dramatic tension and decent visuals for the most part. It's not afraid to fess up to some ugly truths regarding the scenario either. The pace tends to be pretty good overall. One debit would include certain parts of the script, which either feature repetitive dialogue or preposterous situations such as having Milland announce that they are going to stick to their moral standards by shaving, even though he's already committed any number of crimes! Also, the loud, jazzy score by Les Baxter is a matter of taste. Then there's the way that the principals keep running into each other as if they're in a sandbox even though the story takes place all along a major highway, through various towns and in the mountains! Sadly, the viewer never gets a shot of "the women" getting jostled around as they ride IN the trailer during some dicey moments. Oh, and don't miss petite Avalon carrying a 10-point buck on his shoulders (which morphs into a stuffed animal at some point!) Despite the differences in plot points, there is similarity between this film and "Hot Rods to Hell." This isn't necessarily a good movie, but it's rarely boring and alternately amusing (unintentionally) and engrossing.