Jay, a widowed husband and his little daughter, who he hasn’t been able to connect with since her mother’s death, are forced to seek refuge in their small convenience store when a strange disease starts spreading in the city. This new infection causes the people to suffer from an extreme itch that causes them to hurt themselves and whoever is near them, losing their mind in the process.

At first, the store seemed like the best place to barricade themselves and wait for the chaos to blow over, since the emergency services are declared non-operative until further notice, and a martial law is imposed, where any person in the streets showing signs of the disease will be shot on sight. However, Jay and his daughter will soon discover that among the other people locked in the store with them is the menace that anyone can succumb to the new infection and become a lethal problem.

This is the premise of “ITCH!” the new film directed and written by Bari Kang (Lucky, Scrapper), an apocalyptic drama that recently premiered in the “Dances with Films NY” festival in New York.

While the premise can sound like a new version of similar films like “The Mist” or an episode of “The Walking Dead”, Kang does a great job delivering a familiar story with his own twist and merits, with interesting characters, with few but very effective special effects, an a great use of its run time, with a solid steady pace that increase the tension little by little.

Without doubt, this film can be an inspiration for all future filmmakers. I don’t think Kang had a lot of budget in his hands for this movie, but I also have no doubts that he used all his resources as far as he could, and the result can be felt. You can see a lot of heart was in this project where Bari Kang not only directed, but also wrote the script and played the lead character.

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