Here Alone (2016) Movie Review
Written By: FZ
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Rod Blackhurst
Writer: David Ebeltoft
Producers: Rod Blackhurst, Marc Bortz, David Ebeltoft, Gail Ebeltoft, Paul Ebeltoft, et al.
Date Released: April 15, 2016
Cast:
Lucy Walters as Ann
Gina Piersanti as Olivia
Adam David Thompson as Chris
Shane West as Jason
Rating = 2.5/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
The movie opens up with a lone character, Ann, who is shown foraging for food in order to survive. She is in a deep and unforgiving wilderness. At the same time, she is in the middle of the apocalyptic global catastrophe, an appalling and virulent epidemic has already decimated most of the population. She is left alone after her husband and baby daughter have ultimately succumbed to the invisible and inescapable plague. Her days are filled with memories of a not-so-distant life defined by order and security, forcing occasionally the wary woman to hazard raids to nearby farmhouses for supplies. During one of those desperate runs, she ran into a teenage girl and her wounded stepfather. Unbeknown to her, the new arrival will cause disturbance to otherwise quiet existence.
Gore Factor
Being a zombie movie, it is expected to show a lot of special effects and make up. The movie did not disappoint. However, it is very limited unlike other flicks of the same genre. There’s some bloodshed here and there, mostly towards the end, but it’s very light on zombie action. Still a
The Grave Review
Here Alone (2016) is yet another zombie movie. As Post-Apocalyptic infected/zombie flicks go, the movie is far more like 28 Days Later than it is anything that Romero ever created. It’s a slow movie, and as compelling as it may be, it might just be too slow for most people wanting an exciting infected zombie fix.
The good news is though that with a premise that is way too overly-familiar by now, Here Alone offers a lot of substance that many of its peers lack, which makes it worthwhile.
The main protagonist, Ann, is an emotionally damaged woman living in a Post-Apocalyptic world. After an airborne infection killed the world’s population, turning most people into hungry zombies, she lives alone in the woods of upstate New York, where she forages for food and does her best to survive.
When she comes across a guy and his step-daughter in need of help (the first people she’s seen in nearly a year), she doesn’t shoot them in the head and go on surviving like any rational person would do, no, she talks to them, and invites them back to her campsite. This makes the whole scenario unrealistic, since you are living in a very limited resources and you asked another set of bides to share in your survival food.
Here Alone (2016) is a quiet movie that gave us a compelling story and some believable characters, and painted a realistic picture of what surviving in an “infected” world might just be like. Lucy Walters, who we know from her role on Power, anchors the movie with her performance, and never once did it feel like she wasn’t up to the task.
Lacking though in this movie is it’s fairly light on bloody zombie action. At its heart, Here Alone is a story about survival and loss, and a stripped-down one at that. It’s a movie about relationships, and how even at the end of the world mistrust and jealousy can have dire consequences.
It’s also a rather tragic movie, as we learn what happened to Ann’s husband and baby via flashbacks throughout the movie. Seeing as you know she’s alone at the beginning, you also know that those flashbacks are going to cover some traumatic and heartbreaking moments.
Showing a different, more realistic side of survival after a “zombie” apocalypse, we really liked the hushed, personal way that Here Alone told its story. Lucy Walters aced her role, and despite the fact that the story moved a bit slow overall, the tone it set was effective and pushed us to the edge of our seats a few times.
It’s definitely worth watching if you like horror flicks that have a somber tone about them.
Because of the above reasons, Grave Reviews gives Here Alone (2016) two and a half graves out of five graves.
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