From what I've seen of positive reviews of this movie, there's really only one thing that people enjoy: the creature design of the monsters. They are quite gruesome and memorable--part cockroach, part shoebill stork directly descended from dinosaurs, part hellspawn lyncanthrope, part xenomorph, part uncanny valley katsina doll, part (according to the filmmakers) Disney's Goofy. They behave extremely unpredictably, move in infesting packs, and are not quite like anything I've seen before in a horror film. The movie makes no attempt to explain where they came from, what they are, what they want, or anything else about their natural history, and that's a good choice--the mystery is what keeps them scary. They don't even have any catchy trademark name that all the people in this world refer to them by, which is nice! Benjamin Brewer is foremost a visual effects artist, and this is apparent in the fact that his creature design is the only aspect of this film that is at all good.
Unfortunately, a cool monster design can't sustain even this 90 minute chore. The acting is fine, but the writing and directing give the actors little opportunity to make their characters and world feel lived in. I never got a real sense that these were three family members who depended upon each other and had limited interaction with any other human beings; they seemed more like strangers who were teaming up for the first time--or, rather, actors who had just arrived on set. There are no instances I can remember where the characters did (or said) anything that seemed to confirm the reality of their dreary existence. A knife-stabbing "Are we not men?" ritual during one dinner scene is the closest example I can think of, but that peculiarity is undercut by a dozen more examples of half-baked dystopian cosplay. For instance, why is Thomas's haircut so godawful? If you've been cutting your own hair for your entire life--or even if this happens to be the first time that the teenager insisted on cutting his own hair rather than letting his father do it--the end result isn't going to scream "civilization has just ended." Civilization ended fifteen years ago. They would've adapted to having no more Hair Cutteries.
The plot is extremely thin and riddled with implausible character choices as well as numerous extraordinary coincidences. Too often, things happen only because the screenplay needs them to happen. The characters are paper thin, and there's really nothing that this movie even attempts to explore thematically; like lots of other postapocalyptic films, this one doesn't have anything to say about humanity, civilization, or its downfall. All it really has to offer, truly, is a creepy creature design.
That would be fine maybe if the movie were exquisitely edited--if the encounters with the monsters were shot in such a way that they were actually terrifying, nerve-racking, or gripping. They're not. In fact, the blocking of many scenes (for instance, in the cave) doesn't make any logical sense at all; if you can't even figure out the layout that the characters are confined in and what's physically possible within that space, then how can you be concerned about them being trapped or not trapped? Sometimes the camera just cuts and a character has bypassed an obstacle without any explanation. This is a movie where characters overcome obstacles simply through the aid of the screenwriter beginning the next scene. Likewise, the only thing positive I can say about the editing is that the movie ended before it had completely overstayed its welcome.
Feel free to hit that fast forward button and "skim" this movie if you're still curious; as long as you see the ten minutes of monster scenes, then you're not missing anything.
Unfortunately, a cool monster design can't sustain even this 90 minute chore. The acting is fine, but the writing and directing give the actors little opportunity to make their characters and world feel lived in. I never got a real sense that these were three family members who depended upon each other and had limited interaction with any other human beings; they seemed more like strangers who were teaming up for the first time--or, rather, actors who had just arrived on set. There are no instances I can remember where the characters did (or said) anything that seemed to confirm the reality of their dreary existence. A knife-stabbing "Are we not men?" ritual during one dinner scene is the closest example I can think of, but that peculiarity is undercut by a dozen more examples of half-baked dystopian cosplay. For instance, why is Thomas's haircut so godawful? If you've been cutting your own hair for your entire life--or even if this happens to be the first time that the teenager insisted on cutting his own hair rather than letting his father do it--the end result isn't going to scream "civilization has just ended." Civilization ended fifteen years ago. They would've adapted to having no more Hair Cutteries.
The plot is extremely thin and riddled with implausible character choices as well as numerous extraordinary coincidences. Too often, things happen only because the screenplay needs them to happen. The characters are paper thin, and there's really nothing that this movie even attempts to explore thematically; like lots of other postapocalyptic films, this one doesn't have anything to say about humanity, civilization, or its downfall. All it really has to offer, truly, is a creepy creature design.
That would be fine maybe if the movie were exquisitely edited--if the encounters with the monsters were shot in such a way that they were actually terrifying, nerve-racking, or gripping. They're not. In fact, the blocking of many scenes (for instance, in the cave) doesn't make any logical sense at all; if you can't even figure out the layout that the characters are confined in and what's physically possible within that space, then how can you be concerned about them being trapped or not trapped? Sometimes the camera just cuts and a character has bypassed an obstacle without any explanation. This is a movie where characters overcome obstacles simply through the aid of the screenwriter beginning the next scene. Likewise, the only thing positive I can say about the editing is that the movie ended before it had completely overstayed its welcome.
Feel free to hit that fast forward button and "skim" this movie if you're still curious; as long as you see the ten minutes of monster scenes, then you're not missing anything.