It stars Dylan Penn as a rich youth who moves in with her musician boyfriend (Ronen Rubinstein) at a condemned building populated by drug addicts, prostitutes, and shut-ins.
Distraught over her parents' constant fighting, Maya moves in with her boyfriend, Dante, a struggling musician in New York City.
Besides Shynola, the inhabitants include Alexa and Loki, Dante's roommates; Roxy and Big Foot, a transgender prostitute and her pimp; Tess and Vince, formerly-hip junkies; Cookie, who operates a meth lab; Gault and Murphy, death metal S&M gay fetishists; and Hoobler, a recluse nobody has met.
After Loki showers, his roommates initially believe him to be sick, but his apparent fever becomes worse, driving him to hallucinate and act erratically.
Maya attempts to call the authorities for help, but when Gault objects, Dante quickly stops her, accidentally destroying her cell phone.
Years of poor plumbing have mixed together toxic chemicals, infected drug paraphernalia, and diseased human refuse, and the building's tap water now causes violent psychosis.
After showing signs of infection, Vince stabs several people, and Tess aggressively rants about gentrification to Maya before being killed by Big Foot.
Gesner disliked how in traditional zombie films the characters were irrevocably changed into enemies and wanted to make killing loved ones more of a difficult decision.
[6] Berman's assistant Samantha Hawkins and five unnamed crew members allege that Sonnier had also made actress Dylan Penn uncomfortable by asking her to remove her bra before filming a scene with Messner.
[12] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter called it "one of the most egregiously awful horror films in recent memory", citing the special effects as the only highlight.
[15] Matt Boiselle of Dread Central rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote that it may please gorehounds who are not put off by the overly odd characters.
[16] Chris Alexander wrote in Shock Till You Drop that the film's negative reception is unwarranted, as it is an amusing black comedy that is memorable for its disorienting shifts between Troma-style splatter and serious drama.