Neill Blomkamp’s production company, Oats Studios has released their third short film in the last month, “Zygote.” The new film is yet another deviation from what has come before, with “Rakka” and “Firebase.” It’s clear that with each film in Oats Studios Volume 1, Blomkamp and company are making sure they are giving audiences a wide variety of content.
“Zygote” is very similar to John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” In “Zygote,” two people are trapped in a mining facility, where they must escape from a monster. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill monster either. No, this monster is made up from body parts of other members of the facility. Leading the affair is actress Dakota Fanning and actor Jose Pablo Cantillo. The film was co-written and directed by Blomkamp himself.
This Oats Studios experiment is now entering the final stage of Volume 1. There’s only one more film left, titled “Lima.” Not much is known about the film, and there’s no release date announced, but if the timing of these films is any indication, you can expect it soon. However, the real question is what happens after Volume 1. Now, since Oats Studios is three films deep, they should understand if their business plan is succeeding or not. Their plan of releasing these for free on streaming platforms, and asking audiences to contribute via Steam is new ground for filmmakers.
Obviously, we’ll know how things are going if and when we get Volume 2. Hopefully, it works out for Blomkamp and the rest of Oats Studios because they seem to be onto something so far with Volume 1.