HERE ALONE: Woman Vs. Nature Under The Threat Of Zombies

Here Alone is a survival story set in an a zombie apocalypse. Written by David Ebeltoft and directed by Rod Blackhurst, the film has a great cast, tired premise and weak writing. The film stars Lucy Walters with appearances by Shane West and supporting roles carried out by Gina Piersanti and Adam David Thompson.

The Good, The Bad, and The Zombies

In this telling of another same-old tired zombie story, Ann (Walters) is trying to survive on her own in the wilderness. The human population has been infected with a virus, rendering them undead. We learn through flashbacks that when the outbreak began, she escaped with her husband (West) and infant child. The question that keeps coming to mind through out this film is “What exactly happened to the baby?”

We learn the answer to this in the last ten minutes of the film, which is when any real interest in the story is peaked. All the action takes place in  the last ten minutes. It’s what we spent the whole movie waiting for. This screamed “lazy writing” and was incredibly disappointing. If in editing they were to trim all the fat and non-essential imagery, this entire movie could have been a half hour or less.

We don’t actually see a zombie up close or personal until an hour and five minutes in. Then we only see that zombie for a few seconds. The only other time we see zombies in any real satisfactory sense is in the last five minutes of the film. They’re not too done up in make up and look a lot like regular people, lacking color. They don’t look like scary rotting corpses, but the sound effects we hear coming from them were effective in the creepy factor. In fact, we hear the zombies more than we actually see them.

The actors were all believable. It was a talented cast who brought their A game to set and it showed. The problem was these actors didn’t have any on screen chemistry with each other and the relationships weren’t believable. The married couple doesn’t pass as a married couple except for that we’re told in the story that they are. No signs of affection or interest in the other is ever displayed by either, Walters nor West.

Thompson plays Piersanti’s step-dad who is a recent widower, left in care of a teenage girl. He doesn’t look old enough to be her dad. They’re both good actors, but there was no chemistry to speak of between them, making their interactions seem more awkward than familial on screen. While he’s weakened and ill, but not infected with the virus, Ann comes across the two of them while out getting supplies for herself and brings them back to her camp, where she’s living out of her car.

Alone?

The lone survivor, man vs nature has been done before. Tom Hanks set the bar high in Cast Away. Add the threat of the undead and you’d expect a lot of suspense and thrill in every day life for the protagonist. However, Ann seems to have gotten comfortable, which can be boring to watch. At first she’s alone, but she didn’t start out that way nor does she remain that way.

Ann doesn’t do a lot of talking or explaining about what life used to be like, what happened or what she’s done. Instead we are left to piece it together through flashbacks she has during her days in the wild and fragments of half conversations she has. We learn a little about the things her husband taught her about survival and we learn his fate, but none of the details leading to it. We are left to wonder how he lost his battle. Was it friendly fire or zombies? We get the sense it wasn’t zombies though.

Ann has created a routine that she follows when she needs to go to in search of food and avoid becoming a meal instead. These scenes aren’t as suspenseful as they should be, given her situation and the town’s circumstances. I give more credit to the actors than the writer. We’re used to zombies themselves being slow but in this case, the movie itself was very slow paced.

Tired as it is, this is a genre that always keep audiences coming back for more, but to really engage your audience you’ve gotta have something interesting. I’ll give Here Alone points for giving the story a female lead and having the women outnumber the men. This is a film that succeeds in giving women more roles and dialog. But if its intent was to thrill, scare, or captivate the audience, it loses steam.

Let’s Get Technical 

Here Alone is contained to mostly one location, out in the forest just outside of town. The location provided a beautiful backdrop and natural landscape allowing for enticing imagery. Cinematographer, Adam McDaid is talented behind the lens and shot some incredible scenes, but some shots were also shaky and very noticeably so. Natural landscapes can be unstable, unbalanced and not always allow for a tripod to be set up easily. But in a case like that, a steadicam might come in handy for some of those shots.

The film could have been edited a little tighter. It went on a little too long and at parts, felt like it was dragging. Every scene seemed to linger for just a couple seconds too long, this was especially true of the B-Roll shots. The sound effects and score blended nicely with the visuals and story. For a low budget horror movie, the production value of the piece was well done.

Conclusion

Overall, Here Alone is definitely not the worst zombie movie I’ve ever seen, but I won’t be recommending it to any of my zombie enthusiast friends either.

What is your favorite zombie film? Share your thoughts below.

Here Alone opened in theaters around the U.S. on March 31st.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZxVPvCdDHE