‘Die Alone’ Review
Stars: Douglas Smith, Kimberly-Sue Murray, Carrie-Anne Moss, Frank Grillo, Jonathan Cherry | Written and Directed by Lowell Dean
Die Alone is the most recent film from Saskatchewan-based filmmaker Lowell Dean. If you’ve heard of him, it’s probably because of the over-the-top genre comedies WolfCop and Another WolfCop. But he’s done several other films, including the zombie film 13 Eerie and the post-apocalyptic action film SuperGrid, which I was lucky enough to catch along with a Q&A session with him at the Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival a few years back.
Both zombies and a post-apocalyptic setting return in Die Alone, but it’s not a typical tale of the zombie apocalypse, although that isn’t easy to tell from the opening scenes. Ethan (Douglas Smith; Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, The Bye Bye Man) and his girlfriend Emma (Kimberly-Sue Murray; The Scarehouse, Shadowhunters) were heading to his cabin when their car crashed. Ethan wakes up to find Emma and most of his memories, are missing.
He’s taken in by Mae (Carrie-Anne Moss; The Matrix Resurrections, Jessica Jones) who fills him in on the virus that destroyed society and created what are known as The Reclaimed, zombie-like creatures that appear to be a combination of plants and human skeletons. But she also seems strangely unwilling to let him go on his way to look for Emma.
Where Die Alone’s story gets tricky, is that Ethan’s amnesia is recurring, causing him to forget recent events as well. And that in turn makes it hard for the viewer to know if the various flashbacks he has, Frank Grillo (Long Gone Heroes, Tulsa King) makes his appearance in the longest of them, are resurfacing memories or hallucinations. While Dean purposely keeps it vague, there are visual clues along the way, though you may need a sharp eye to catch them.
With the recurring amnesia angle, it might be tempting to think of Die Alone as a mashup of Dawn of the Dead and Memento, which also starred Carrie-Anne Moss, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. It’s not until the final act, though, when Tom (Jonathan Cherry; Final Destination 2, Dark Match) turns up claiming to be searching for his wife, that everything starts to come together.
What Dean has crafted is a horror film, but at its heart is a message about love, loss, loneliness and the way memories both good and bad can stay with us, either haunting us or giving us the strength to keep going. And perhaps more importantly, what we will do to hold on to love and happiness, even if it is only a memory. Given the nature of the script and the characters that populate it, that isn’t always easy to pull off. Thankfully, Dean has assembled an excellent cast, with both the big names and veteran character actors delivering solid performances.
But don’t let me give you the impression that Die Alone isn’t a horror film. The Reclaimed are frightening when they attack, biting chunks out of their victims like any self-respecting zombie. In other scenes, they look almost like a part of the forest, the branches growing out of them helping them to blend in with the trees. Emersen Ziffle (Incident in a Ghostland, Corner Gas: The Movie) does a wonderful job of bringing the dead to life here.
Cinematographer Mark Dobrescu (Dangerous, The Recall) also deserves a mention for delivering shots that go from beautiful images of Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley one minute to atmospheric interiors of abandoned buildings the next. It’s good to see our provincial government has changed its mind and brought back subsidies for local film production, hopefully we’ll see more of our local landscape on the screen soon.
While Die Alone wasn’t the film I thought I was going to get when I sat down to watch it, I’m more than happy with what I did get. I knew Lowell Dean could deliver a fun genre film, he’s shown he can deal with more serious themes as well. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see his wrestling-themed horror film Dark Match in the near future.
**** 4/5
Die Alone was released in US cinemas and on VOD and Digital Platforms on October 18th, via Quiver Releasing.
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