I have a weakness for found footage films so Zero Day ended up in my queue. Zero Day is about two teenage boys who videotape their plan to attack their high school and the more mundane moments of their daily life, which take on a retroactive poignancy as those who know them do not realize the significance of their encounter with the two, including their parents.
Before watching Zero Day, I was unaware that it was inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The real life duo actually did record everything on videotape (called “The Basement Tapes”), and there is actual security camera footage of the massacre. These recordings are not available to the public. I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea that Zero Day is basically a recreation of real events, but it is not inherently wrong for a filmmaker to imagine what the footage looks like.
Human beings have a natural prurient interest in death and madness and imagining the unimaginable. I found the majority of Zero Day tedious and annoying because who can be captivated by two murderous, smug teenage boys who are easily bored even in the face of demented success. The security footage was horrifically fascinating and brutally stark with a brief moment of humor and awesomeness. I did wonder if it mirrored what happened in real life, and if it did, I would love to give one particular survivor a handshake for best defiant moment in the face of terror. The 911-operator dialogue was annoying and distracting, but apparently realistic. There is a cute cat that undercuts the tension.
I would not recommend Zero Day unless you’re really interested in Columbine or teens who are perpetrators of mass shootings, which I am not.