[yasr_overall_rating]
A young woman struggles to survive on her own in the wake of a mysterious epidemic that has decimated society and forced her deep into the unforgiving wilderness.
“Here Alone” finds Ann (Lucy Walters) alone in an apocalyptic upstate New York forest, some time after an epidemic has infected humans and decimated society. Ann wasn’t always alone, though; through flashbacks, we learn that she arrived at her current wilderness shelter with her husband Jason (Shane West) and their baby. We don’t know exactly how long it’s been since she lost her family, but early in the film, she meets a teenage girl named Olivia (Gina Piersanti) and her step-father Chris (Adam David Thompson), who have endured similar hardships with the loss of Olivia’s mother. Most of the film chronicles the threesome’s daily attempts to survive, and the tensions caused as Olivia watches Ann and Chris form a bond.
The film is directed by Rod Blackhurst, with a screenplay by David Ebeltoft, and they don’t exactly bring a whole lot new to the zombie genre. It’s a genre that, after countless George Romero rip-offs and an exhausting amount of “The Walking Dead” episodes, has certainly run out of steam in the eyes of many. “Here Alone” seems to borrow a lot from these works, in particular from Danny Boyle’s modern classic “28 Days Later,” a similarly bleak look at trying to survive in this world where the characters never utter the Z-word, and the monsters run at full speed. But unlike that film, the characters in “Here Alone” don’t go on an interesting journey, and we don’t even get to know them that well as they sit around and talk about their plans to prolong the inevitable.
The actors do a decent enough job, Walters especially. You don’t actually need to know the specifics of how her life was destroyed in order to empathize with her, but when the film does finally get around to showing us what happened and the decisions she had to make, it is actually pretty devastating to watch, and you can really feel the pain in Ann’s eyes. Piersanti and Thompson are good as well, giving Walters something to play off of, and there is real emotion in some of their conversations. Despite the solid performances, the film only becomes vaguely entertaining and thought-provoking in the final act, where their situation intensifies and the characters must act in a decisive manner if they want to have any chance to continue theirexistence.
There isn’t anything terrible about “Here Alone,” it just doesn’t stand out among similar zombie flicks, or even other types of post-apocalyptic stories. It isn’t putting a new spin on theconventions we have come to expect, and there are not enough interesting conversations or themes to warrant 90-plus minutes of hanging out with these people. It is as if characters in zombie movies are a reflection of zombie movies themselves. They have reached a point where all they can do is continue to exist, never really mattering in the grand scheme of things.
In theaters March 31st
