Here Alone Should Remain in Isolation: A Film Review

*full disclosure: an online screener of this film was provided by the film's publicity arm.

Director: Rod Blackhurst.

Writer: David Ebeltoft.

Cast: Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti and Adam David Thompson.

There is one thing a film should never be - boring! Failing that, a film should at least be informative. Unfortunately, director Rod Blackhurst and writer David Ebeltoft fail in both of these endeavours, with the zombie non-thriller Here Alone. In the film, the protagonist Ann (Lucy Walters) spends much of her time camping. Finally, two more characters are entered into the mix. But, by this time, your attention will be fading. The film does attempt to deliver a few interesting survival skills, many of which would get you killed in reality. As well, the film's static narrative slows the film's pace. Here Alone was an attempt, by the director, to "convey tone and feeling;" the tone is serious, while the feeling is boredom.

Ann is central to the first act. She camps along a placid lake. Meanwhile, a few flashbacks fill in some of her story details. Ann has lost the characters, who brought her to this remote site. Still, she soldiers on, by living in a car and eating grubs. Almost without dialogue, this first third will not hook many viewers' attentions. Finally, two new characters are introduced near the middle of the film: Olivia (Gina Piersanti) and Chris (Adam David Thompson). Conflict and tension are forgotten, in favour of reliving the past. It is only in the final fifth of the film where the infected are forefront and causing chaos. To get here, you will require the patience and tolerance of a Buddha, with no real payoff on the horizon.

Could Ann actually survive in a zombie apocalypse?

The film offers a lot of anti-survivalist skills. It is amazing how much media actually misinforms an audience. In the case of Here Alone, civilization has gone off the deep end. Still, Ann is doing her best to get herself killed. In one scene, she cuts her arm with a large blade, to fill a jar with her blood. This is zombie bait. She does heat the blade. However, if you cut into your arm (especially in the wild), you could be setting yourself up for a wound that does not heal, or which becomes infected. In the next scene, Anne is covering herself in deer dander. The last thing you want to be doing with a large cut is introducing feces into the equation. An infection is not far off. In another sequence, Ann is caring for her baby. Her idea of shelter for a vulnerable infant is a moss covered car. Moisture and heat would be issues here. But, the film's writer is not interested in believablity. Why else would a woman dump an entire bucket of pee, on herself? This viewer wondered if the filmmakers have spent much time in the wilderness, at all.

The film's main detriment is its pacing. It is painfully slow and there are a few reasons for this. Admittedly, the director has made Here Alone: "with a very low budget (IMDB)." Still, the settings and characters rarely change. Almost the entire film is set in a remote campsite. This is a camping-in-the-woods zombie non-thriller, whose style will hopefully not be repeated. Here, Ann sits in a car, or stares into the woods. Almost nothing happens for the first fifty minutes of the film. Characters have been reduced to a trio. There are not enough characters here, to create complexity. When an external force is introduced in the final few moments of the film, the earlier four-fifths of the film have set the viewer up to experience tedium and little else. Conflict, tension and action sequences have almost all been forgotten, in favour of an overly dramatic and possibly pretentious outing. From the director: "Here Alone will appeal to fans of well-crafted psychological dramatic thrillers and elevated genre films." Humility is almost a forgotten virtue. Meanwhile, Here Alone could hardly even be labelled a drama and definitely not a thriller.

Here Alone has shown at a number of film festivals, including Tribeca, in 2016. The film is now out via Video-on-demand platforms, in the United States. However, in a competitive zombie-genred film market, there are many other, higher quality films out there. While the music from composer Eric D. Johnson, and some of the natural cinematography from director Blackhurst are compelling, Here Alone will definitely not entertain many film viewers. The director's attempt at pretentiousness, in the quotes above, is just as unbelievable as the film's non-survival skills. And, outside of an experiment for the filmmakers, Here Alone has almost no value to anyone else. Like many of the characters in the film, Here Alone is dead on arrival.

Overall: 5.5 out of 10.

A trailer for the film, on 28DLA: A Feature Length Trailer for Here Alone

A significantly better film, at a similar budget:




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Posted in: 2017,horror movie review,independent,indie,indie movie review,movie,movie review,release date,review,video on demand,zombie apocalypse,zombies