I see a lot of positive reviews on this movie, but for my taste this was honestly lacking in almost every aspect. Not horribly so, but the movie leaves you with this sensation that it is uninspired and unpolished. It is a post apocalyptic/virus outbreak dystopia flick with a "twist".
Maybe I have seen too many horror flicks to find any of this original or interesting but then again a movie should stand on its own merits no matter the audience. The three main characters are somewhat bland and for the first part of the movie I felt that we were being rushed into this alleged feeling of a close family, checking all the boxes for every cliche in sight.
The second part of the movie is where all the cards are laid on the table in a narrative coup de grace. Unfortunately the feeling of this "revelation" feels like if you're playing a poker game and someone suddenly yells "Yhatzee!" and slaps down a bunch of Uno cards and proudly bets his monopoly money. And this will be the case if you had been paying attention throughout the movie. The big twist is that the family, which we were so masterfully lead to believe were hiding from the infected "breathers", in fact turn out to be the infected themselves, and the breathers are just hazard suited swat teams send to purge the infected. That would be a cool twist if only everything we had been shown up until now did not contradict it. Until now the family was running scared and weak, avoiding confrontation at all costs but as soon as the revelation drops they go Blade on the swat team. This includes a total change in their appearance so the movie deliberately mislead the audience. The half-assed explanation that the virus makes them super powerful when desperate doesn't hold much weight since they had been clearly shown to be desperate and afraid earlier in the movie as well without any transformation. But even if we let this slide there's another plot hole. Before the revelation a single "breather" managed to tear a bolted and chained bomb shelter vault door off it's hinges while the mother was hanging onto it. It was explicitly stated this was a single breather. Not sure how one swat member managed this or why they didn't use torch cutters or the like. No wait, I know, because the movie deliberately wanted to misdirect us through deception. Its like you're watching a superman movie who suddenly rips off his mask an turns out to be batman. You raise a questioning finger because a moment ago superman had displayed the ability to fly and had super strength but the movie just says "pay no attention to this, wasn't it such a cool and unexpected twist though!"
Well no, no it wasn't. I am left thoroughly underwhelmed by a decent idea which if executed properly could have gone the path of the Sixth Sense, but instead got derailed into this mess. Is this one to avoid? No, not really. It can pass a few hours if you want to waste them but just don't think too hard about the plot holes.
Maybe I have seen too many horror flicks to find any of this original or interesting but then again a movie should stand on its own merits no matter the audience. The three main characters are somewhat bland and for the first part of the movie I felt that we were being rushed into this alleged feeling of a close family, checking all the boxes for every cliche in sight.
The second part of the movie is where all the cards are laid on the table in a narrative coup de grace. Unfortunately the feeling of this "revelation" feels like if you're playing a poker game and someone suddenly yells "Yhatzee!" and slaps down a bunch of Uno cards and proudly bets his monopoly money. And this will be the case if you had been paying attention throughout the movie. The big twist is that the family, which we were so masterfully lead to believe were hiding from the infected "breathers", in fact turn out to be the infected themselves, and the breathers are just hazard suited swat teams send to purge the infected. That would be a cool twist if only everything we had been shown up until now did not contradict it. Until now the family was running scared and weak, avoiding confrontation at all costs but as soon as the revelation drops they go Blade on the swat team. This includes a total change in their appearance so the movie deliberately mislead the audience. The half-assed explanation that the virus makes them super powerful when desperate doesn't hold much weight since they had been clearly shown to be desperate and afraid earlier in the movie as well without any transformation. But even if we let this slide there's another plot hole. Before the revelation a single "breather" managed to tear a bolted and chained bomb shelter vault door off it's hinges while the mother was hanging onto it. It was explicitly stated this was a single breather. Not sure how one swat member managed this or why they didn't use torch cutters or the like. No wait, I know, because the movie deliberately wanted to misdirect us through deception. Its like you're watching a superman movie who suddenly rips off his mask an turns out to be batman. You raise a questioning finger because a moment ago superman had displayed the ability to fly and had super strength but the movie just says "pay no attention to this, wasn't it such a cool and unexpected twist though!"
Well no, no it wasn't. I am left thoroughly underwhelmed by a decent idea which if executed properly could have gone the path of the Sixth Sense, but instead got derailed into this mess. Is this one to avoid? No, not really. It can pass a few hours if you want to waste them but just don't think too hard about the plot holes.