‘Alive’ Review
Stars: Ellen Hillman, Kian Pritchard, Neil Sheffield, Stuart Matthews, Angus Kennedy, Gillian Broderick, Simone McIntyre, Carl Upshell | Written and Directed by David Marantz
Zombies seem to be endlessly popular. Just when you think the world is getting bored of the horror sub-genre, something pops along to prove otherwise. Whether it’s Shaun of the Dead, World War Z, The Walking Dead or the most recent hit series The Last of Us, there is always something new and popular. So it’s no surprise that low-budget horror filmmakers will often give the zombie movie a go.
In this one, the unimaginatively titled Alive, Helen, her younger brother Barney, and her boyfriend Kevin (this has to be a British film with those names doesn’t it?!) are trying to find a safe haven during the zombie apocalypse. This safe haven is an island in which they have the directions for on a GPS unit of some sort.
The main story in Alive is a little predictable. We have this young couple and a younger brother, who we soon discover has been infected. This leads to more than one moment of ‘should they kill him’. On their journey to somewhere safe, they bump into various people and groups and the film goes for the ‘can they be trusted’ route for each of these. Predictability isn’t the worst thing here though. These are zombie movie tropes that have been proven to work well, so it’s a good idea for the director to use them. They also give viewers a familiarity with what they are watching. There are no big surprises in Alive although it does go for an interesting ending which I’ll speak about a bit later in this review.
There’s a largely inexperienced cast here that does well. I thought the performances from all the main cast were impressive – Ellen Hillman as Helen, Kian Pritchard as Kevin and Neil Sheffield as Dan are all worth mentioning. They play the key roles and share plenty of screen time, whether they are shooting at people or dodging bullets, or negotiating with a religious cult or deciding what to do with an infected child, it is all acted out very well.
The low budget does hinder the zombie element of the film a little. I think the actual zombies themselves look pretty good, and the filmmakers make sure they don’t show too many close-ups. There’s even one excellent scene in which we see a very creepy-looking zombie shot in torchlight that works very well. But there’s probably not quite enough zombie action. When the zombies are on screen they don’t feel too much of a threat – they kind of half run half walk while making the usual zombie noises. To counter this, there is an emphasis on the drama element of the movie and that works fine too.
How exactly do you end a zombie movie? There is of course plenty of films to get this answer but there’s not too many that feel very original. Alive actually manages this and it’s an ending that I really liked, something different and a little thought-provoking. Even planting seeds for a possible sequel.
If you’ve recently watched, or are watching The Last of Us currently, you could do a lot worse than following it up with this low-budget zombie drama.
*** 3/5
Alive is on digital platforms now from Gravitas Ventures.
