Tag: Alive

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Movie Review

Alive (2018) Movie Review

Alive – Movie Review

Alive

Director: Rob Grant

Writer: Chuck McCue, Jules Vincent (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A severely injured man and woman awake in an abandoned sanitarium only to discover that a sadistic caretaker holds the keys to their freedom and the horrific answers as to their real identity.

Runtime: 1 Hour 31 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Alive starts when a man (Cocquerel) and woman (Stopps) wake up in an injured state. A man (Macfadyen) claiming to be caring for them, is trying to bring them back to health. However, he starts putting them through a gruelling series of trials to prove they are ready to recover.

The two patients try to figure out how they got there and who they are. However, each clue only leads them down a path without any answers. As they search, they get to learn a much more disturbing truth.

Verdict on Alive

Alive is a horror thriller following two strangers who wake up injured and under the care of a man. They don’t know what happened to them and find themselves dealing with a series of tests to see if they can recover. However, they start to believe they are being controlled enough to remain injured and heal.

This does create an interesting mystery as to why they are there. While also including the shock of what the man has been doing to the victims. There doesn’t seem to be much behind the body horror it is suggesting, and it is the final act that brings the biggest shock to the story.

Final Thoughts – Alive takes its time getting going but is saved by a shock ending.

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Movie Review

Alive (2022) Movie Review

Alive – Movie Review

Alive Movie Poster

Director: David Marantz

Writer: David Marantz (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Helen navigates a ravaged world with her boyfriend Kevin and her little brother Barney. Desperate to find help after Barney’s infection slowly turns him into a zombie, they come upon a house where lives Dan, a man harboring a heavy secret.

Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Alive starts as a virus spreads across England, turning people into infected zombies. Helen (Hillman), Kevin (Pritchard) and Barney are searching for an island that could give refuge. They stumble across Dan (Sheffield) a lone survivor with his own secrets.

When the group go in search of supplies, they end up clashing with Father Albert (Matthews) and his followers. They need to battle to survive as they search for their chance of rescue.

Verdict on Alive

Alive is a horror thriller following a group of survivors during a zombie apocalypse. They have a plan but after clashing with a group of survivors with other plans, they must learn whom to trust during the life and death times in life.

With an opening sequence that produces the pure chaos involved with a potential zombie outbreak. Showing how slowly people plan for it, believing smaller rescue centres would be the answer. This does turn into a battle for survival between the two sides. Showing how a zombie outbreak could bring the worst out in people. This also leans towards the potential of twisted ideas of what would be considered safety for humanity, a theory that is often thrown at the zombie subgenre. The environment is used well, having one home off the map, with the school offering supplies and troubles.

Final Thoughts – Alive is an entertaining zombie movie.

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Movie Review

Final Days (2020) Movie Review

Final Days – Simple Survivor Story

Director: Johnny Martin

Writer: Matt Naylor (Screenplay)

Starring: Tyler Posey, Summer Spiro, Donald Sutherland, Robert Ri’chard, John Posey

Plot: When an outbreak hits, Aidan barricades himself inside his apartment and starts rationing food. His complex is overrun by infected Screamers, and with the world falling apart into chaos, he is left completely alone fighting for his life.


Tagline – Anyone that survives this will have to be forgiven for unforgivable things

Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Final Days starts when Aidan (Posey) wakes up only to learn that the outside world of his apartment, has been taken over by infected humans known as Screamers. He is left alone in his apartment, waiting for rescue, saving his food supply and water hoping for a change.

After 43 days Aidan considers ending everything until he sees a young woman Eva (Spiro) across the street from him, giving him hope of not being alone, trying to find freedom.

Thoughts on Final Days

Characters & Performances – Aidan is a heavy partier that wakes up alone in his apartment, trying to keep himself occupied, before looking to end it after nearly six weeks. He ends up discovering a woman across the street, who gives him hope as she starts to venture out in search for supplies. He does try to do the right thing once he finds someone around him. Tyler Posey does a solid enough job in this role, part of the weakness in this performance comes from the lack of much for him to do for the first half of the film, he doesn’t become engaging enough. Eva is the woman across the street, she does give Aidan hope to carry on, we don’t learn much about what she has been up to during the time, mostly becoming just woman Aidan wants to save. Summer Spiro does everything she can in this role, which doesn’t leave her much to do. We don’t get to meet many other characters, with any that we do meet are the typical infection based movie roles.

Story – The story here follows a young man that wakes up to learn that the world outside has become overrun by infected people known as Screamers, leaving to figure out how to survive in a world where he believes he is alone. This is a film that also had the same script as last years , so if you saw that you will know where this film will go. The story is simple to follow, even if it glosses over the early stages of the outbreak, as it is very strange that Aidan doesn’t see the girl across the street in the first seven weeks of the events starting. Once things get going and supplies dry up, it does have a few more tense scenes, but by the end of the story, you will feel like we need more.

Themes – Final Days is a horror movie that will give us a version of zombies, which is a mix of the traditional ones and the faster moving, climbing ones which does make for a couple of funny sequences. The film is kept in one main location with the apartment complexes being show close together and how the tight apartments can offer new dangers.

Signature Entertainment presents Final Days on DVD and Digital Platforms 12th April. iTunes Here and Amazon Here

Final Days is easy to watch horror that never hits the intensity it wants to.

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Movie Review

Alive (1993) Movie Review

Director: Frank Marshall

Writer: John Patrick Shanley (Screenplay) Piers Paul Read (Book)

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay, John Newton, David Kriegel, Kevin Breznahan

Plot: A Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow swept Andes are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash.


Tagline – They survived the impossible…by doing the unthinkable.

Runtime: 2 Hours

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Brilliant Survival Story

Story: Alive starts when the plane crashes in the Andes, the surviving passengers, including Nando Parrado (Hawke), Antonio Balbi (Spano), Robert Canessa (Hamilton) and Carlitos Paez (Ramsay) look to help keep people calm and deal with injuries as they look to plan for rescue.

Antonio does take control of trying to keep the survivors alive, which includes making sure the food and drink lasts until rescue and people could survive the freezing nights, at this time, 26 people made it through the first night. As the time starts passing by, the realization that they are not being looked for sets in, which sees them having to make a drastic decision in their attempts to survive.

Thoughts on Alive

Characters – Nando is one of the few survivors that wasn’t awake after the crash, once awake, he starts to help with the survival attempts and is one of the few that pushes through the idea of needing to eat the dead to survive. Antonio is the captain of the rugby team and takes the leadership position, trying to keep everyone calm and alive for as long as possible, planning on making sure the food supply and other essentials is being supplied for the survivors. Roberto and Carlitos help with the medical problems after the crash, proving to understand how to survive the injuries they have received. These men and women are based on the real survivors of the accident, not everyone made it out alive and going into character details, might seem unfair to the people.

Performances – Ethan Hawke and Vincent Spano are both excellent in their roles in the film, they do show both sides of survivors as well as understanding how important they both are meant to be. The whole cast is great, showing how difficult it was to survive and instead of just turning to the accents, they keep it looking like an American version of the film, with the Uruguayan names

Story – The story here follows the true story of the survival of members of the Uruguayan rugby team and other passengers of a plane crash in the Anders mountain range, which sees how they must survive over a 2-month period, while they are waiting for rescue. This is a truly amazing story of survival, it showed us just how difficult each day would be for the survivors and shows us how they faced a horrible decision, but one that saved their lives. It is one that does rely on how people did do anything to survive and how we wouldn’t be telling this story if some of the people hadn’t survived.

Adventure/Biopic – The adventure side of this story follows the survivors as they plan on surviving until rescue, which does play into the biopic side of the story, because this event did change the lives of the survivors.

Settings – The film is set in the Andes mountain range, it shows the cold conditions, the fact they can’t just walk away from this location along with the brutal plane crash to start the events off.


Scene of the Movie – The crash is a brutal and honest watch.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – They all seem so perfectly shaved considering they are here for 2 months.

Final Thoughts – This is an amazing story of survival, one that couldn’t even be written by a writer, it shows the impossible and has wonderful performance from the whole cast.

Overall: Must watch survival story.