Survivors

There were so many opportunities to add some action, excitement, tension, missed the opportunity every single time. This movie takes boing to a new level. It seemed so simple. Add some action. I'm not even a filmmaker and I could have greatly improved this snooze fest. What was this director trying to do? This is the movie equivalent of a shot of NyQuil.

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.

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.

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.