Extinction

I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. Pretty much everyone is tired of the zombie genre by now but no one seems to be doing much to try and change up the formula.

Enter "Extinction", where the main story focus is on the relationship between the two main male leads. After a brief intro scene setting the zombie apocalypse stage, we are sent years into the future and the two men, though living next door to one another in their survivalist enclave, have nothing to do with each other. What has happened in the intervening time to drive them apart? Well, we learn that during the course of the movie, naturally, but it was nice to see that, although there are zombies in the movie, they aren't the focus of the story, merely the backdrop.

This type of movie works really well. The mystery surrounding the two men's falling out and the relationship with the little girl keep you guessing for a while. Of course, the "twist" isn't so wild or subtle that you don't guess it really early on, but it is nice, nonetheless.

The zombies, of course, though absent from much of the film, reappear at length, and we are treated to some nice moments of film making that put me in mind of older films. There is suspense and some nice moments of tension until they are finally revealed but there are a few too many jump scares.

Ultimately, the human drama enhances what would otherwise be a boring zombie movie and makes it into a very decent film indeed. The two main actors involved, Matthew Fox and Jeffrey Donovan, handle their roles very well and give very good performances.

That said, if you prefer your zombies slow and shambling, or your zombie flicks to be fast paced and violent, then this one may not be for you. On the other hand, if you want to try something a little bit different in the zombie apocalypse, then give it a go.

SUMMARY: More human drama than zombie-fest, though there are plenty of them towards the end. Well worthwhile if you want something more than "Pew-pew-pew! Die Zombie Die!" to watch.

I've been compelled to write this review after reading the former ones. As this film is quite remarkable in many things I can only understand the very bad reviews as spurious stuff. Why I say that comes below: Very good performances. Matthew Fox, Jeffrey Donovan and the girl Quinn McColgan are perfect in their work. You really get into the movie with them. There's always a narrative nerve that never decays. The photography is usually evocative. The characters are elaborated and likely. They evolve as the screenplay unfolds. The movie is, in general, entertaining and the action scenes are well filmed. Maybe is not the most original sci-fi movie but no doubt it's a more than decent one.

Well all I can say is what a pleasant surprise, just when I was looking for something that would fly under the radar this popped up!,in a world populated by c grade trash and Hollywood tripe movies this is the sort of film genuine horror fans will enjoy, although a little of a slow burner its apocalyptic arctic setting builds to a climatic yet somewhat satisfying but logical end without overstepping the overall mark.

Not a huge lot of replay value to be truthful but horror fans will enjoy it every now and then in the right setting as I will, well acted...well pretty much everything was done to above a good standard to be truthful and this will join my collection among many other from the same genre.

ps....not a real zombie film but something much more.

Apocalypses come and go ... especially in movie terms. And there are different sort of movies. Those who take upon them to show us how and if an apocalypse is coming. And those who are showing us and concentrate more on the aftermath. This is a case of the latter. But it's also a slow burner.

Do not expect this to be highlight upon highlight, and excitement upon excitement. No this is human drama at its finest. You could argue and wonder if the animosities are real - or rather if there is enough reason for conflict, but humans are hard to figure out. And living isolated does make people do crazy things from time to time ... I wouldn't react like that, I think, but the internal logic of the movie still works. And there is enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seat, once the movie gets going.

As far as the film goes, a tragedy takes place at the beginning of the movie which puts the two men against each other. Now when I first saw the trailer to this flick I knew it wouldn't be a high budget film. So going into the first 1 hr of the film had me a bit worried that it would be full of cheesy special effects. But instead the script writer maintains focus on the two protagonists and the kid, which is a smart way to do a low budget film less gore, less explosions, less cost. I found it to be quite scary at certain points especially when you see a camera turn away from one of the actors you know something is going to pop out behind. Matthew fox does a pretty good job maintaining a strange character with some sort of secret but if you're like me you can piece it together no problem. I really enjoyed the make up designs for the evolved zombies, but it didn't pan out to be as great as I expected. If you dig movies such as the descent or even 30 days of night I'm sure you will find a shed of enjoyment with the film. Don't over sell yourself thinking it is a complete sleeper it will have its moments, but unfortunately a short hand of them.