Survivors

To be clear, zombie movies come in a number of styles. Fast zombies, slow zombies, rage virus zombies, WWZ action zombie movies, Shawn Of The Dead funny zombie movies, Warm Bodies romantic zombie movies, etc. The list is long.

This is a slow burn movie similar to The Battery or Maggie. It starts with a reporter who stumbles onto a story about a bioweapon virus killing people around the same time that the virus jumps to the general population. There are several subplots going on at the same time, before and after the virus hits.

The story itself is pretty straightforward, with suspense and mystery aided by the time jumps. This movie is more about the highs and lows that humanity is capable of when pushed by extreme circumstances than dealing with a zombie menace. If you need zombies chasing people down, it's not for you. If you like people trying to navigate a new world because of zombies, you might like it. If you appreciate slow building suspense movies with a great score, this is for you.

Once I realised that the entire first segment of the movie was a girl talking to a camera, and a cameraman who can't seem to communicate any other way except by filming, even in private conversations in hotel rooms, I turned off. This sort of style has been long overdone; it's not realistic, it's hard to watch, and hard to understand. Who is the cameraman? Why is he always hidden behind the camera? Why does he need to film 24 / 7, even the most trivial boring everyday things? Eventually I found that I didn't care. A slow start that petered to a halt. I've given it three stars as there's a faint chance I may go back and watch in fast-forward. The only disease I saw was boredom and boy was it contagious.

Dialog is too low and the rest is too loud. Everything sounds overly bassy. It's hard to understand the characters. I tried to use subtitles but it was obvious whoever did the subtitles couldn't understand the dialog either. A shame because it seems like it might have been a decent low-budget flick.

The only real downside to the movie is that the zombie action isn't very impressive, to put it mildly. There aren't many scenes that are really anything close to scary once the initial tension passes. The first 45 minutes or so are very suspenseful and seemed to be building to something very frightening. Instead it went another direction and although it was disappointing, it was well done. The characters were very well developed, the story and emotions were authentic and the main actors did a great job. What really set it apart for me though was the moody score. It's beautiful, depressing, haunting, and really elevated the film and keeps the quieter moments more engaging than they should've been. Also kudos to the writer for actually coming up with a good ending - something many movies struggle with these days.

DO watch if you like slow gentle ambience type smouldering, English style, home/found footage type stuff (over done these days but I like the way it's used here), with some class performances put in by the main actors who all understate things to good and I found powerful effect. Put to a really atmospheric score too. DONT watch if you want action/gore/zombie madness. This film is about loss and I like the indie-feel way it's done. Class act.