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.

Of the movie, you will get an interesting story. I was confused because in the first 40 minutes nothing happens, that would fit into the horror genre. I once saw a movie (out of respect for this one, I will not mention the title) where even the first scene, a girl stalked by her ex, is directed like a horror movie. This one has mystery, and then at some point there comes an aha!moment and then you kinda know what is going on. So, patience, dear watcher. I saw good reviews, then decided to watch this and it paid out. Also enjoyed the absence of big a-list names, so nothing was distracting. I only wish that one poster (which does not make sense and that scene is not in the movie) would not exist. Give it a go, it has themes like ALS, which you rarely see in cinema.

John Rosman's New Life tries to breathe exactly that into the zombie genre, and only somewhat succeeds. This is a film with some good atmosphere, scenery and genuinely disturbing special effects but it's consistently unclear in narrative, distracted by its own weird subplots and never quite grounds itself in anything wholly cohesive. A young girl (Hayley Erin) is on the run from the director (Tony Amendola) of a nefarious institute who has hired a mysterious fixer (Sonia Walger) to track her down and eliminate her. Why? Well I've already mentioned zombies earlier which isn't a secret the film really keeps too well from the outset, so there you go. The film is at its strongest when it focuses on the young girl evading her pursuers, seeking food and shelter from a kindly farmer and his wife, the simplicity of moving from place to place. When the story pivots back to the fixer is when it sort of loses momentum; Walger is a great actress whose work I love in LOST, but she's saddled with an odd arc here. Too much dialogue and a bizarre subplot about her early onset ALS do nothing for the story at large and just muddy things up. It also suffers from a jarringly abrupt ending and a general lack of focus.

I didn't have high expectations when I went to see this movie. This synopsis sounded intriguing, however my anticipation for this movie was limited.

The start is rather slow and our protagonist (Jess) meets and older couple and through their interactions you get to know her a little better. The order couple is lovely and definitely adds some emotional weight to the movie. We are also introduced to our other protagonist (Elsa) who is trying to find Jess. As soon as Elsa arrives at the older couples place, intriguing things start happening. From that point on the movie had my full attention since I like the subject matter. The first contact with our threat is made and it was portrayed really effective and was a thrilling contrast to the slow start. A minor complained is that there is a really cheap jump scare which was absolutely unnecessary. On the other hand there are some really well made makeup effects to be seen.

However the narrative progresses and there are new characters introduced. And then the movie kinda just ends. I felt like the ending was pretty abrupt and felt a little bit unfinished. It could have been a rather big finale but instead we get a pretty short ending. Overall I really like the idea of this movie and going in without knowing what exactly this was about was a really nice decision. It's definitely not a masterpiece or a movie that will be remembered in a couple of years from now with how many movies are being released nowadays, but it was certainly a good watch and a nice way to spend not even 90 minutes. [6,2/10]

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.