Don't Grow Up

Intelligent and daring little horror film destined to teenagers and supposed to study those characters. I am not a great teenagers stories lover. But I must admit that this horror yarn is very well done, no matter my own taste and opinion. That's not the first horror film involving children - or teens - many Spanish films are specialized in those movies. In many films, children - or teens - were shown as the villains, the monsters. Here, it is certainly not the case. So the ingredients proposed here - teens and zombies, plague, enraged - were in the 2010's fashion. Good film also bringing some philosophical questions concerning youth and the future of the planet.

I recently watched this film and while it's certainly no blockbuster, I was surprised that I didn't find myself bored or wishing I had something better to watch. This film was far more dramatic than I expected, especially considering that nearly the entire cast were adolescent kids. As mentioned in some other reviews, the poor decisions made by characters is actually somewhat believable considering their young age.

That said, this film deserves far more than anything below a 5 out of 10. I scored it a 6, simply because it surprised me with decent, yet brief SFX and reasonably high production values. The acting also exceeded expectations. I anticipated some teen angst, but it wasn't over done or gratuitous. The film worked fine for a budget indie flick about some teen's perspective of the apocalypse.

I've seen far worse and I suspect this film's rating suffers from blown expectations of those expecting an action flick with tons of "disaster porn" that's usually associated with films of this genre. To paraphrase another review, this film is just fine for watching on a late night or rainy day.

How many variant of movies can you make about the zombie genre? I guess this is another original idea about only adults becoming zombies, leaving the children being 'normal'. Was it a good idea to make this movie? It could have been if the movie was stronger with better action scenes and zombie attacks. But then only for lovers of this genre. What you get instead is just a movie like you saw so many times before. Nothing that you will remember about in the future. The actors (almost all kids of course) are just okay without any being brilliant. The story is just too weak to be interesting. And on top of that they don't give you any explanation about what could have start this disaster. I would just skip this movie if I were you.

This movie will likely be seen a lot better at a certain age than at other ages. And it's OK, if a movie tries to appeal to a certain group of people. This might have resonated somehow with me, if I was younger and I can understand if people see it that way. I'm also pretty certain that the same people probably would change their mind a decade or so after they've watched it.

That being said, the nature of the young grown ups and their flaws is intriguing. Even though they are delinquents, they are not entirely unlikable. They do have a tendency to draw the wrong conclusions and make the worst choice possible. Other than that, what kind of movie would we have here?

Don't grow up isn't the genre's best out there but it certainly deserves a look especially if you're into horror.

And why is that? Well it does act more like a drama, and on character development but the premise and the world it builds is scary. Of course little is shown so there is a lot left for the imagination, completely the opposite compared to The Children. So if you do like this one, go watch what I just recommended. Far better, more tensions and more action on screen.

Overall Don't Grow Up is a little indie project, not quite original, nothing new in the direction, same bad decisions taken throughout the movie just like in any other but it works alright for a very late, lonely night.

Cheers!