La nuit a dévoré le monde

For starters, the zombies are totally, utterly mute. Believe or not, it's quite scary! In the real world, a simple cough would get anybody killed in an instant... More generally, one of the most powerful features of this movie is the strength of the overwhelming silence: in the streets, buildings, cars, rooms, hallways... Gone is the human agitation we have grown so used to!

Then, the setting in beautiful Paris, downtown-style. Lots of nice Haustmanian buildings. This comes in sharp contrast to the horror that awaits our character at virtually every corner.

The story fits on a simple sheet of paper, but the interest of this movie lies elsewhere. As some reviewers have described it before, it's about survival of the worst kind. I found myself planning what actions the "hero" should be taking to survive, ahead of him and, ticked, he went through each of them! In this regard, it is a pretty consistent movie which feels quite real.

My biggest complain is about the ending, something that a lot of French movies typically fail to do properly (just like the Americans and Asians, but for some other reasons): there is absolutely no closure to the storyline, far from it. I won't get into the details here, but please be warned that you will be left with a virtually limitless number of possible endings for this movie, way too many in my opinion to feel comfortable with it.

The poster and description don't really sell this movie correctly. They sort of hint at this bloodbath zombie world. And while there are hints of that, it is much more of a slice of life drama and psychological study if anything.

There are obviously zombies but not they are not the main focus. There are hints of The Omega Man in here but I think it's much more thoughtful, it tries to look at what life would actually be like.

The film is slow and there are like 40 lines of dialogue in the whole movie, it might even be less. This doesn't make it bad or anything but it does make some parts drag ever so slightly.

A man gets caught in an apartment as the zombie apocalypse kicks off. He is safe, but alone.

Now I would start of by saying this is very well made. The production, camera work and acting is all great. I quite like it when films shrink down the scope to a few rooms. I like everything about this film, except having to sit through it.

The underlying themes of this film is companionship and boredom. The film demonstrates this very well. But in doing so makes for a very lonely, boring film.

Watching a man slowly lose his mind from loneliness is not particularity engaging.

There is no survival aspect, no action.

This is a very quiet, considered, hipster film. There is nothing wrong with that and I am glad the people who enjoyed it, enjoyed it. I can see why they did, but this is not the experience I want when I put a zombie movie on.

So I watched more than 50 zombie movies for my studies, and this one is one of the most originals I seen.

I like the pragmatism of the main character, who welcomes the new life of survival with a certain calm and meticulous mind. This movie felt quite satisfying and relaxing, like OCD-based, because of the precise character.

I can relate to Sam annoyed by the crowd of the party and then being almost relieved in this zombie apocalypse. But he starts to feel lonely though, and the character progression is really interesting.

Also, zombies make no sound. Huge difference from the main line in zombie tropes. Much scarier. I definitely recommend.

Is it better to be alive and alone in a zombie apocalypse or dead and or a zombie? This one does a thorough and solid job of answering all those questions. Zombies and effects are done well but there are long stretches of being stuck with the main character which adds to the sense of claustrophobia. A dilemma worth watching.