The second Dances with Films NYC film I had the opportunity to review this week comes from multihyphenate filmmaker Bari Kang. Kang’s 2021 indie crime thriller, The Scrapper, made a lot of headway for Kang when it was picked up for distribution by 1091 Pictures. His latest film, ITCH!, tweaks the zombie film formula by injecting a tell-tale sign to identify the infected, and it’s likely going to have audiences scratching along while watching this outbreak story unfold at this weekend’s festival.

ITCH! is about a lot more than just an outbreak. The story starts with Jay (Kang) opening his father’s bodega-sized, curbside department store on the busy New York City streets so his father can look after his sick mother. Still grieving the loss of his wife, Jay has a taste for alcohol and is prone to anxiety attacks, the former causing a rift between him and his young daughter Olivia (Bari Kang’s charming daughter Olivia Kang), who has remained mute since her mother’s passing and biting people in response to confrontations. After a school incident, Jay is asked to pick up Olivia, giving him no other choice but to bring her to work with him.

But today isn’t like most others. For starters, Jay encounters disgruntled former employee Miguel (Patrick Michael Valley) on the street outside, threatening Jay if he doesn’t pay Miguel what his father owes him. Lisa, his father’s current checkout operator, doesn’t respect Jay’s authority. And customers like Henry (Douglas Stirling) are looking to get Amazon prices at the mom-and-pop shop. Then comes the erratic customers digging into their skin and clawing it off before petty thieves come looking for the money in the register.

As far as drawing the viewer into the story, Kang generously pours it on in the setup. Dramatic actions lead to surprising consequences, and though everything is happening all at once, he still manages to find opportunities to be patient with his characters and capture tremendously cinematic images on the other side of the camera. Additionally, all of the characters are assertively dimensional, something we don’t always see in low-budget indie zombie flicks. It’s pretty easy to assume that Kang studied at the altar of George A. Romero’s movies, specifically Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, while creating the story for ITCH!, which is even more apparent given the circumstances and setting.

And speaking of setting, the inner city area seems like the perfect place for an outbreak of this nature. Orkin says that cities like Chicago and New York are some of the worst when it comes to bed bugs, not to mention that they are intense epicenters for the spread of disease. This connective tissue allows Kang to get under your skin, but he has a little trouble staying there.

The well-written characters enhance the movie-watching experience in ITCH!, informing the viewer of the pitfalls these folks have encountered in their lifetime, leading them to these extreme choices in the film. Themes of grace and forgiveness are difficult to convey, but Kang doesn’t seem to have that problem, and there’s a general likability to even the most excessive offenders, who mean well. However, even with great characters, there needs to be a fulfilling story, and I think that’s where ITCH! suffers.

Like most zombie films, much of the plot follows Jay as he tries to insulate his daughter from the violence surrounding her. Her presence alone leads to another character’s life-threatening injury, and in trying to protect her, Jay accidentally finds himself putting her in harm’s way. There’s symbolism here about the limits Jay has as a parent. He won’t always be able to protect her… but he can sure try his best to see her survive this outcome. Throughout ITCH! we then see the characters form bonds and get close. The makeshift family is a bright spot until the carnage revs up when trust becomes a luxury that Jay can no longer afford, as the people inside become infected, and he continues to try to keep his daughter safe.

However, there’s so much going on inside the department store that the audience begins to forget what’s happening on the other side of the metal shudders protecting the group. Kang tries to fetter in news reports over the radio, video calls home, and opts for security cam images outside of the shop, but this never seems like enough to address the scope of the outbreak. We learn early on, through radio, that police believe the itch is a viral TikTok challenge, but we never get a more national or global view.

While you can argue that the aforementioned Romero films don’t really do that either, shots of the massive zombie presence outside of the mall in Dawn of the Dead or the TV reports in Night of the Living Dead not only indicate the withering odds for the survivors, but they also serve as creative sandbox moments for effects and makeup artists to have fun and get disturbingly disgusting. And, to that extent, ITCH! ’s effects are well done, but there’s not really enough mayhem to do the grotesquerie that its title offers any justice. It has its moments, but I believe audiences like me will be looking for more than what they get.

Additionally, many little arcs never come back. I genuinely thought with a name like ITCH! Jay’s drinking problem may come back into focus as he withdraws in the store, but then again, a zombie apocalypse is probably quite sobering, too.

ITCH! is a rather unexpected film. On the one hand, I love Kang’s desire to portray the humanity of this group of survivors realistically, and his use of diverse voices among his cast is a great touch. Still, the film never fully rises to its horror premise, creating disharmony in how viewers may feel about the movie. The film has its moments, and the visual artistry Kang is able to summon onscreen is, at times, remarkably gorgeous. But as a horror film, ITCH! meanders, occasionally providing enough discomfort for viewers to scratch a patch of skin but never reaching the tension or atmosphere to have them itching all over.