I actually didn't realize it was a 2013 film until I came to IMDb. I wanted something fairly quick to watch and picked this. It is not especially good in most ways but it kept me watching for the duration.
PLOT. We need to forget plot as we do for most horror and zombie movies. The cause behind the disease is foolish. People want to think of it as a social commentary but it really isn't. Have to accept that it does not make sense. Having said that, it is no worse than the plot behind THE CELL by Stephen King.
PACING. It is slow at spots although it does start out fairly quickly. In the first 5 minutes or so we see someone coming down with early symptoms. There are the many normal zombie tropes and jump scares like breaking in through a door or window to keep us watching.
ACTORS/ACTING. I really didn't recognize any of the actors which I liked. One looks familiar and I've likely seen him in minor roles. Most of them are okay but not great. The main female lead is dull most of the time. This was her first performance and she's gone on to do other things but this one is not great. Yet I found her, until the final basement scene, to be very typically normal.
LOCATIONS. Most of it takes place in a house set but some of the outside and university scenes were not common, very grey and interesting. Did not feel like New Year's Eve especially as it was filmed in Ontario.
ENDING. The very end was disappointing. After realizing that there was a time period when infected people all died; you only had to wait it out and then rebuild the world. You'd likely have some lower infection rates but eventually the human race would try to recover in a world full of dead bodies. That would have been an interesting sequel. But they decided to go full zombie at the end and have most if not all come back to life - even those that died that were not dead from the disease. There is a sequel but the plot doesn't sound like is how humans survived.
Overall it was a low budget and just moderately acted movie with a normal plot and the occasional small plot point that caught your attention. Worth a bowl of popcorn as you binge watch everything you can find.
PLOT. We need to forget plot as we do for most horror and zombie movies. The cause behind the disease is foolish. People want to think of it as a social commentary but it really isn't. Have to accept that it does not make sense. Having said that, it is no worse than the plot behind THE CELL by Stephen King.
PACING. It is slow at spots although it does start out fairly quickly. In the first 5 minutes or so we see someone coming down with early symptoms. There are the many normal zombie tropes and jump scares like breaking in through a door or window to keep us watching.
ACTORS/ACTING. I really didn't recognize any of the actors which I liked. One looks familiar and I've likely seen him in minor roles. Most of them are okay but not great. The main female lead is dull most of the time. This was her first performance and she's gone on to do other things but this one is not great. Yet I found her, until the final basement scene, to be very typically normal.
LOCATIONS. Most of it takes place in a house set but some of the outside and university scenes were not common, very grey and interesting. Did not feel like New Year's Eve especially as it was filmed in Ontario.
ENDING. The very end was disappointing. After realizing that there was a time period when infected people all died; you only had to wait it out and then rebuild the world. You'd likely have some lower infection rates but eventually the human race would try to recover in a world full of dead bodies. That would have been an interesting sequel. But they decided to go full zombie at the end and have most if not all come back to life - even those that died that were not dead from the disease. There is a sequel but the plot doesn't sound like is how humans survived.
Overall it was a low budget and just moderately acted movie with a normal plot and the occasional small plot point that caught your attention. Worth a bowl of popcorn as you binge watch everything you can find.