Live Survival

Stumbling upong this 2023 horror movie by random chance here in 2023 and seeing it was a zombie movie, of course I had to watch it. Sure, I had never even heard about the movie prior to sitting down and watching it, but it was a zombie movie, that is what mattered.

Writer and director Joe Lujan utterly failed to deliver something that entertained me, much less managed to keep my attention. I managed to sit through, nay, strike that, suffer through 17 minutes of the ordeal that was "Live Survival", then I just couldn't take anymore of it. The movie was filmed with someone's camera in their mobile phone. And yeah, I just don't think that qualifies as entertainment.

And from the 17 minutes that I suffered through, I had seen enough to know that things would not get better, so why waste more time on it? The acting performances in "Live Survival" were as dead as the zombies were supposed to be, rigid, wooden and not particularly great. Needless to say that there were no one famous or reckognizable on the cast list.

"Live Survival" looked and felt like a high school home video project for some media class. And that whole found-footage style of movie never had any appeal to me, so that was also something that highly spoke against "Live Survival".

I enjoy things with zombies, but there is a limit as to what I will sit through and endure, and "Live Survival" was not one such thing. Needless to say that I am not returning to attempt watching the rest of the movie. Nor is it a movie that I will recommend you wasting your time, money or effort on.

If you have had the misfortune of sitting through the 2022 movie "Live Escape", also from writer and director Joe Lujan, then you know what kind of torment you're in for here.

My rating of "Live Survival" lands on a one out of ten stars.

LIVE SURVIVAL is the sequel to LIVE ESCAPE, a found footage tale of two cops who get stuck in a maze full of zombies and get out by the skin of their teeth. The sequel picks up right from there, following them again in a found footage manner as they try to make their way out. They find out the zombie plague has spread everywhere and find a few other survivors with whom they continue the fight for survival.

The original had an interesting concept but was marred by a poor execution. The sequel retains many of the flaws of the original, such as banal dialogue (likely improvised), poor believability of the zombies (including poor make-up), mediocre acting, low production values and so on.

However, the sequel does improve on two counts:

First, there is something like a story here, where in the original there was not much more than the outline of a story, the events being really in the service of illustrating the concept. I think having a story does elevate the movie a bit.

Second, while the production values are still low and shortcomings in the set design still persist (the ceiling still gives away that it is a set), the setting is more atmospheric than in the original. In fact, I was reminded a little of some of the settings in the HOTEL INFERNO (2013) franchise, though that series of movies still has far more atmosphere (and way, way more gore).

The movie ends on a cliffhanger that is almost identical to the ending of the original, so perhaps there will be a third part.

Despite the improvements, this film cannot really be recommended unless you are a found footage zombie horror completist.

After escaping the zombie hordes, the police officers try to make their way to safety as the creatures follow them out into the city at large where they manage to meet up with several other survivors, and when they try to help them get to safety find themselves battling more undead to survive.

This was a decent enough if somewhat problematic sequel. One of the main features of this one is the enhanced nature of the attacks that come off as quite thrilling. As the close-quarter found-footage style means that the zombies are usually right on top of the participants during the encounters, they turn out rather engaging with the frantic races for escape and away to safety, providing this with several thrilling encounters. As the chaos of the situation still prevents it from really spelling out what's going on, these still maintain a tense pace and atmosphere which makes the confrontations that much more intriguing. With the big finale in the underground tunnels of the facility features a lot more encounters and carnage than before which generates some tense moments amongst the thrilling action while also incorporating some decent twists into the story expanding on what has been stated before getting a lot to like as a result. This one does have some big issues holding it down. One of the main drawbacks is the egregious use of inappropriate camera work and setups that fly in the face of the found-footage format. While the first one was great at not breaking this up, this does hit several mistakes quite early on in its running time as the recorded nature of what's happening is done by characters that really shouldn't be filming when their lives are in danger with the way the zombies chase the couple around the construction site. As this not only makes it hard to see what's going on with the constant shakiness, but the fact that they are recording and passing the camera to each other is a bit of a distraction much in the same way the inclusion of the prologue offers the escape of the virus throughout the facility shouldn't be there since that doesn't make sense how that footage would be added onto the main footage here. The other drawback to this one is the inherently slow-going pace that drains a lot of the life from this one before it gets started. Compared to the more rampant and outgoing energetic tempo of the original, this one tends to forgo the zombies for large periods in the middle where they meet up with the escaping couple and try to fortify their surroundings. This section has very few attacks or encounters which leaves it to rely more on the awkward nature of filming themselves trying to get to know each other, wandering through the facility looking for safety, or doing their best to get away from the zombies that makes for a far less engaging experience when not dealing with the creatures. The last issue here is the same low-budget sensibility hampering this one that the original suffered from, being full of cheap effects, production aesthetics, and locations which are enough to bring this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

If you're into the zombie genre then add this to your collection. Well acted, good special effects, good plot and nice environment. It also has its tense moments. You also care enough about the characters andn root for their survival. The movie is a found footage type film so if you're not into those then it might be an issue.

This film is a 2 parter. "Live Escape" is the 1st one. It reminds me a bit of "300" & "300: Rise Of An Empire".

It's a real shame that I have not seen any promotion or anyone talking about it ok YT. As of my review here there's only one that has reviewed it so far and barely any views on it.

Hopefully Theresa 3rd part.