Alive (2023) by David Marantz

Director: David Marantz

Year: 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Zombie

Plot:

On the brink of a zombie apocalypse, a woman and her family flee into the countryside to seek shelter with a couple of other survivors, staying away from the zombie hordes, when their presence is detected by religious extremists looking to push their agenda, and they must get to safety before it’s too late.

Review:

Overall, there was a lot to like about this one. One of the better features here is the highly effective and enjoyable setup that provides the goods on a low-budget zombie apocalypse rather nicely. Establishing early on the nature of the pandemic and how to get the group out of the city and into the remote countryside, where a slew of scenes show them adapting to their newfound state of survival in the woods, this is nothing new, but it works to the film's benefit by working in cramped, low-budget conditions that are quite logical and realistic. The family dynamic at play here is trying to keep them safe from the creatures while dealing with the inevitable infection of one of the members at the same time.

That gives the film a great buffer in the second half to deal not only with the emerging zombie threat but also with the arrival of the religious cult that tries to take on the group in their quest for getting control of the situation. This section provides a solid counterbalance that allows for a fantastic human drama between the two groups which is necessary in a zombie film as the religious cult gets far more overt and dangerous about their intentions which makes for a great means of including the zombie action into the storyline as some fine interactions take place around the house and the surrounding areas which let the low-budget zombie effects and gore come off quite nicely. These factors are enough to give this one quite a lot to like.

There are some drawbacks to be had with this one. The biggest drawback to this one is the rather underwhelming amount of zombie action featured here, which is based on several attacks in only a few sections of the film. This doesn't really make their presence feel all that intimidating due to these lacking attacks, with the main focus here being the cult coming into play, where the zombies are kept to the sidelines as a secondary threat. It also doesn't help that this comes under the secondary issue where its budget shines through at the worst points possible, as the low budget makes the effects feel cheaper with the low-rent CGI for the spectacle sequences or the overall lack of zombies here, with the hordes only being featured in small groups. These aren't that big, though, and are all that hold this back.

Overview: ***.5/5

A highly enjoyable lower-budget zombie effort that manages to overcome its few limitations, which are barely worthwhile, keeps this one a solid lower-budget genre effort that maintains quite a lot of positives. Those who enjoy low-budget genre fare, are hardcore zombie movie fanatics, or are curious about it will have a lot to like, while those who aren’t into those features should heed caution with this one.