New Life

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2023 movie "New Life" here in 2024, and of course I did so. Sure, I didn't even know what I was getting into here, aside from it being a horror or thriller that I hadn't even heard about. So writer and director John Rosman had every opportunity to impress and entertain me with this movie.

Oh boy, I wasn't exactly prepared for what writer John Rosman delivered here. The storyline in "New Life" was really a nice surprise, and I am very glad that I had the chance to sit down and watch this movie. It was a well-written script, narrative and storyline, and writer John Rosman really caught me off-guard here.

I genuinely enjoyed "New Life", but it sort of felt a bit incomplete. Perhaps a follow-up movie would bring more to the narrative, as "New Life" felt like it was only the beginning of something.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and they had some talented actors and actresses on the cast list. I wasn't familiar with the cast in the movie.

While "New Life" wasn't a movie that relied heavily on an abundance of special effects, I will say that the effects that were in the movie definitely helped bring the narrative to life, and also looked realistic.

While it might be somewhat of a niche movie, I think "New Life" is definitely a movie that is well-worth checking out, especially if you have an interest in both zombie movies and viral outbreak movies.

My rating of "New Life" lands on a six out of ten stars.

"New Life," directed by John Rosman, recalls David Cronenberg's early films like *Shivers* and *Rabid* with its blend of grotesque disease, dangerous infected, and a hint of corporate conspiracy. The story tracks Jessica (Hayley Erin), a fugitive harboring a lethal pathogen, pursued by Elsa (Sonya Walger), a fixer with ALS linked to a shadowy organization. Its slow tension builds to unsettling, Cronenberg-inspired horror, with practical effects showing bodies twisted by a primal plague.

Rosman echoes Cronenberg's knack for unease and bodily betrayal-think less *The Fly*'s transformation, more the raw paranoia of his earlier works. Jessica's flight and Elsa's fraying resolve add human weight, while the conspiracy lurks subtly in the background. The Pacific Northwest setting lends a stark chill, and a mid-film shift keeps it engaging, though it lacks Cronenberg's deeper bite.

"New Life" is an interesting watch, particularly for its nods to Cronenberg's early style. It's a solid debut with strong performances, offering a fresh take that fans of that era might appreciate, even if it doesn't fully match its predecessor's intensity.

This movie was on sale on iTunes for five dollars so I figured I would give it a chance. The trailer was good and within the first minute or so I turned it off since trailers tend to spoil the whole movie. I started watching it and was pleased throughout the entire movie. It was engaging and original. You can tell it isn't high budget movie but the production values are exceptional and the soundtrack was top notch. There is nothing that feels "low budget" about this film. I am not a film school snob. I have no knowledge on any of that stuff. I typically have an extreme distrust of reviews, especially critic reviews, since there's a huge disconnect between the rotten tomatoes website when it comes to audience scores and film critic scores. The audience scores usually are substantially lower than the critic scores, and vice versa. I don't wanna spoil anything about this movie but I assure you if you like dystopian style movies that have a creepy mysterious twist then you will thoroughly enjoy this movie. There's only a few scenes that have mild jump scares so this is not a horror movie in any sense of the term horror. Every actor in the movie did an exceptional job. I highly recommend. This is a 10/10 for limited budget movies and my scoring is just a general one that judges everything and I use the same criteria for all movies. So, my 7/10 is quite good. I would actually be happy to watch this movie again and plan on doing so with a friend. Please be kind, this is my first IMDb review and I was too lazy to spell check. Sorry not sorry. Best wishes with your quest to find a good movie to kill some time with! -Brandon.

A mix of The Fugitive with 28 days later. But if everyone was idiotic. I didn't care about any of them.

Great premise but at less than 90 minutes it's too short for any of it to have any real impact. A lot of unearned attempts at emotional moments.

The "twist" is less of a surprise and more just expanding on what you already are able to understand.

There's a secondary story with Sonya Walger that is supposed to add depth to her character but it just comes of as superfluous. There's no impact to the story other than making the reason why's she's picked for this manhunt to be completely idiotic.

I typically don't want longer movies but this one could have used more time in the oven.

I almost skipped this movie after reading the extremely negative reviews it got on here, certainly the ones stating I shouldn't trust the first ratings as most often those are biased, a thing I totally agree with. But a friend watched it and told me it wasn't that bad so I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did because it was entertaining. Maybe not the best in this genre but still worth a watch if you like that kind of stories. I sure do. Hayley Erin and Sonya Walger play the main characters and we're both convincing. Sure there are no Oscar winning performances, neither for the script that feels like a déjà-vu but it's just easy entertainment and sometimes that's just all that I need.