Poor little rich girl Maya (Dylan Penn) just can’t take her parents’ squabbling any longer so her boyfriend, Dante (Ronen Rubinstein), offers to take care of her.  She runs away from her parents’ luxurious beach house in favor of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  Maya is mortified to discover that Dante and his roommates, Loki (Honor Titus) and Alexa (Genevieve Hudson-Price), squat in a graffiti covered building long ago condemned.  Her new neighbors run the gamut of unsavory characters, from prostitutes to junkies and everything in between.  Between the filth and squalor, and drug dealer Cookie’s improper disposal of drug cooking ingredients, a noxious virus is born within the walls of the building.  This virus causes puss filled boils and homicidal rage, and the tenants succumb one by one when one of their own locks down the building.

Eli Morgan Gesner, known for co-founding apparel company Zoo York and skateboarding, dove headfirst into filmmaking by penning the script and directing. Choosing such a seedy setting for his first feature gives Condemned a very gritty, gutterpunk feel and lends credibility that such a repulsive virus would be born from an environment in which filth has been accumulating for decades.  The residents don’t take their trash out because they don’t want to alert the authorities that the building is inhabited, though the filth suits the tenants’ lifestyles just fine anyway. The building’s occupants do make use of the water and sewage system, and we travel from apartment to apartment via the flushed waste in the pipes.

What’s less believable is that a character like Maya wouldn’t turn and flee the moment she set foot inside the fetid building. Within moments she’s greeted by a mentally unhinged Shynola, the former super that never abandoned his post when he should have, and every encounter with the other squatters progressively get more dangerous.  Between the unsanitary living conditions and a specific pair of downstairs neighbors with malicious intent, it’s tough to swallow that a Hamptons princess would decide to stick it out rather than run back home to mommy. While Dylan Penn does portray Maya with necessary naivety, she often feels one dimensional.  Her chemistry with Ronen Rubinstein falls flat, and only when their survival instincts kick in do they feel believable as a couple.

The supporting cast, however, seems to relish their colorful roles and often bring twisted humor to such a bleak backdrop.  Jon Abrahams and Lydia Hearst shine as junkies willing to do anything for their next fix, while characters Big Foot and Roxy will make you squeamish long before the virus takes hold of the tenants.

The makeup department deserves kudos for matching the viral effects to Gesner’s urban decay set.  The sticky, oozing boils are gag worthy, and yet feel right at home with the condemned building. The effects become even more revolting the longer the infected incubates the virus.  The only downside is that the behavior of the virus changes a bit pertaining to the needs of the story.  The rate of infection and speed of progression varies so widely that it comes across as haphazard at moments.

As a viral outbreak film, Condemned doesn’t offer anything new.  There are no twists and the story progresses as you’d expect.  Instead, Gesner chooses to explore the seediness of a condemned urban building, and its inner workings.  It’s an unflinching look at a squalid lifestyle, amped up with gross out effects, filth, and biting humor.  These are not relatable characters, but, save for our lead, they are compelling to watch.  Save for a few stylistic and tonal miss-steps, as well as a dull heroine, Condemned will test your gag reflex repeatedly and occasionally tickle your funny bone.  It will also ward off any inclination to squat.CONDEMNED