Alive (2023) review
It’s hard to make a zombie film that doesn’t feel like a retread of so much that’s come before it. This is the constant issue plaguing Alive, a film in need of a compelling hook.
Early on it feels like Director/Screenwriter David Marantz is making it up in the fly. A slow opening gradually introduces the zombie threat caused by some vague viral infection.
Marantz chops these early scenes like a series of Cliff Notes with very little connection from one highlight to another.
There’s no sense of the passage of time or how significantly the zombie threat has escalated.
Further complicating things, Marantz spends the next 15 minutes focusing on Dan (Neil Sheffield), a man who actually prepared for this apocalypse.
Dan doesn’t have anyone to interact with so this period is painfully slow. It is clear that Dan has a roommate that’s beginning the process of turning into a zombie, but he’s not ready to do what needs to be done.
Realizing a silent movie isn’t the most intriguing option, Marantz introduces Helen (Ellen Hillman), her boyfriend, Kevin (Kian Pritchard) and little brother, Barney (Andrew May-Gohey).
Barney managed to get bitten, but Helen’s figured out a full-scale zombie turn hack — feeding Barney a little raw meat slows the infection.
Operating on a smaller budget, Marantz can’t actually devote too much effort on the zombies, who rarely appear in numbers greater than three. It’s tough doing a zombie movie with such a sparse amount of zombies that don’t do anything to be considered a threat.
The zombies also move very much like actors mindful of their steps with randomly applied makeup blood.
Instead, Marantz goes the tried-and-true route of showing that humans are far more of a menace when the world is lost.
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This threat comes courtesy of a religious cult led by Father Albert (Stuart Matthews), who thinks Helen is the key to surviving the apocalypse. The religious cult isn’t exactly a fresh group of villains and this crew isn’t very menacing.
The tension is largely non-existing thanks to Marantz’s methodical pacing with little sense of urgency. Too much of the film plays out matter-of-factly instead of some desperate, largely futile attempt to stay alive.
For as prepared as he’s positioned early on, Dan isn’t much help to Helen, who largely has to take care of Kevin and Barney herself.
Editing is shaky with some rough transitions while most fade out like Marantz assumed the film needed to be commercial breaks.
The final act is equally frustrating as it’s framed as this big showdown, but Marantz isn’t suddenly capable of delivering riveting edge of your seat action. This big climactic scene plays out like the rest of the film with barely any excitement or energy to the big fight. At least it’s consistent with the rest of it.
Marantz has a few decent ideas on the human/zombie dynamic, but he waits until the final act to do much with it and by that point it feels too little too late.
The performances are all steady. Hillman, Sheffield and Matthews in particular are convincing in their roles although there’s no awful performance dragging the film down.
Alive is a mostly competently made film that desperately needed a jolt to waken up a stiff concept of a zombie movie with little thrills and chills coming from the undead.