Among the Living

While watching a decidedly low-budget film, I often ask myself why the filmmaker's chose to devote time and money to making it. Was the story so compelling to them that they felt it must be told? Did they believe they'd make a killer sale to Netflix? Or did they receive a government grant that needed to be spent?

It's hard to say what motivated the team behind this film to undertake this talky, static production that barely qualifies as a zombie entry. It features an ineffectual and deceitful sod wandering around the countryside supposedly looking after his sister as he tries to find their father. Along the way they meet some other folks, have long conversations, drink beer - or get smacked about.

You meet a few "infected", but this is mostly a film about hiking and camping, punctuated by gabby intermissions and the main character - the author of his own misfortune - weeping at his self-inflicted fate.

With surprisingly few edits, this could be sold as stock footage of the English countryside.

Was so slow I picked up a book, read, and taught myself hot to crochet while watching it only in hopes that I didn't waste money renting it. It reminded me of a family movie that was given Steven Spielberg's theatrical background music to try to infuse the movie with some hope in action. Hope died.

The actors were good. The directing was good. The plot was slow.

I can not say more about this movie not much happened. So enjoy steps to crocheting to meet the required amount of characters needed to warn you:

Chain a multiple of 3 plus 4. To begin the blanket stitch, you will need to make a chain of the amount of stitches needed plus an additional 4 stitches. The additional 4 stitches will provide some slack for working the first double crochet stitch.

Make your chain as long as you think it will need to be for your project. For example, if you are making a blanket, then you will probably need to chain at least 90 stitches, plus 4, for a total of 94. Or, if you are making a washcloth, then you can probably just chain 18 stitches, plus 4 for a total of 22.

Written and acted as if it is real life. Reminded me of the series Black Summer, which also seemed as if it could be real life.

This movie is NOT a zombie slasher flick and NOT a zombie blood fest!

Acting is perfect.

Writing/script is on point.

Locations are beautiful.

The zombies 'style' is something I have not seen before. From their makeup to their 'thirst' we get to see something new and refreshing.

(Funny, referring to zombies as being new and refreshing)

This is a slow burn, human driven movie. It kept me interested throughout.

I will definitely be watching this a second time. And, I would like to buy it on DVD to add to my Zombie movie/series collection!

Definately worth watching.

I happened to stumble upon the 2022 horror drama "Among the Living" by random blind luck. And with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, and it sounded like a zombie movie of sorts from the synopsis, of course I had to sit down and watch watch writer and director Rob Worsey had to offer.

"Among the Living" is not an archetypical zombie movie. No, it is more of an infected human type of movie, though there is no explaination given to the infection, the cause of it, or how it started. So in that aspect writer and director Rob Worsey followed the blueprint of most zombie movies.

The storyline in "Among the Living" was adequate. Sure, it was a watchable movie, but the storyline was a little bit too uneventful for my liking. There was a whole lot of just milling about without anything much exciting happening throughout the majority of the movie. And it was a shame, because that approach to the narrative was sort of holding the movie back.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "Among the Living", but they had gotten a handful of interesting and talented actors and actresses together for the movie. Dean Michael Gregory (playing Harry) and George Newton (playing Karl) really carried the movie quite well with their performances.

Visually then "Among the Living" was okay. It is not a movie that makes use of an excessive amount of blood, visceral gore and mayhem like many other zombie movies. So if you're expecting a zombie movie with special effects rivaling "The Walking Dead", you'll be sorely disappointed. The make-up was adequate for the infected beings that were in the movie, though the black shark-like eyes made no sense. It looked cool, but it made no sense. Nor did the growling sound that no human throat is capable of producing make any sense. Or the fact that the infected could smell blood from a long distance, much akin to the ability of a shark sensing blood in the water.

"Among the Living" made for an adequate, albeit something bland, viewing experience. It definitely had its moments, but the overall impression after having sat through 85 minutes is that of it being a somewhat mediocre movie.

My rating of "Among the Living" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Watched this hidden tale of a movie tonight by a recommendation and I throughly enjoyed it!

👀At first glance, it plays out like an extended episode of "The Last of Us", versus a full movie, as it centers around a young man and his sister traveling across the open country, following a global outbreak. If you're a fan of simple stories, with a few characters to keep track of and character development, this one works great. Oh, and there's zombies!

As mentioned, this one really centers around the character relationships and is able to accomplish empathy for them in the short amount of time it's given. I genuinely was interested and engaged in a very short amount of time.

While movies of this kind can be known to drag, this one as paced perfectly and did not waste a second.

Bonus points for an excellent soundtrack and score!

Is it pumping with horror? Not exactly, but think of it as a slower level of a horror video game, where it's still looming, but there's some time to focus on the characters for a bit.

Recommend!