Among the Living

Good movie!

Good movie!

Good movie!

Good movie!

I happened to stumble upon the 2022 horror drama "Among the Living" by random blind luck. And with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, and it sounded like a zombie movie of sorts from the synopsis, of course I had to sit down and watch watch writer and director Rob Worsey had to offer. "Among the Living" is not an archetypical zombie movie. No, it is more of an infected human type of movie, though there is no explaination given to the infection, the cause of it, or how it started. So in that aspect writer and director Rob Worsey followed the blueprint of most zombie movies. The storyline in "Among the Living" was adequate. Sure, it was a watchable movie, but the storyline was a little bit too uneventful for my liking. There was a whole lot of just milling about without anything much exciting happening throughout the majority of the movie. And it was a shame, because that approach to the narrative was sort of holding the movie back. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "Among the Living", but they had gotten a handful of interesting and talented actors and actresses together for the movie. Dean Michael Gregory (playing Harry) and George Newton (playing Karl) really carried the movie quite well with their performances. Visually then "Among the Living" was okay. It is not a movie that makes use of an excessive amount of blood, visceral gore and mayhem like many other zombie movies. So if you're expecting a zombie movie with special effects rivaling "The Walking Dead", you'll be sorely disappointed. The make-up was adequate for the infected beings that were in the movie, though the black shark-like eyes made no sense. It looked cool, but it made no sense. Nor did the growling sound that no human throat is capable of producing make any sense. Or the fact that the infected could smell blood from a long distance, much akin to the ability of a shark sensing blood in the water. "Among the Living" made for an adequate, albeit something bland, viewing experience. It definitely had its moments, but the overall impression after having sat through 85 minutes is that of it being a somewhat mediocre movie. My rating of "Among the Living" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The only good thing that can be said about this movie is that the countryside is pretty to look at other than that it is completely devoid of anything interesting even the zombies are boring and stupid and very few, the entire thing just seemed to have no point at all. We have Harry who is the most pathetic excuse for a man ever strolling the country with his little sister and what amounts to no weapons against zombies crying about everything, they run into Karl who is the only one it seems to be able to survive and another kid, Harry betrays Karl and leaves him for the one persistent zombie out of the entire 3 in the movie ,once again Harry is strolling through the countryside weaponless only now with 2 kids in tow and the entire thing ends with Harry sitting on a boat and crying, again.

While watching a decidedly low-budget film, I often ask myself why the filmmaker's chose to devote time and money to making it. Was the story so compelling to them that they felt it must be told? Did they believe they'd make a killer sale to Netflix? Or did they receive a government grant that needed to be spent? It's hard to say what motivated the team behind this film to undertake this talky, static production that barely qualifies as a zombie entry. It features an ineffectual and deceitful sod wandering around the countryside supposedly looking after his sister as he tries to find their father. Along the way they meet some other folks, have long conversations, drink beer - or get smacked about. You meet a few "infected", but this is mostly a film about hiking and camping, punctuated by gabby intermissions and the main character - the author of his own misfortune - weeping at his self-inflicted fate. With surprisingly few edits, this could be sold as stock footage of the English countryside.

This film is worth the watch if: You enjoy watching low budget films You're open to a blend of genres (drama on a horror back drop) You like a slow burn Among The Living includes thought provoking moments and steers away from stereotypes - this is not your typical horror zombie movie. The film showcases some amazing locations, which contrasts the grim reality of living and surviving in a world in crisis. This film brings an element of social realism to the horror genre that isn't often seen. Although this film doesn't include loads of gore or zombie action, it presents the realistic threat of other humans.

When the world falls apart, be thankful you aren't in the UK. Harry is quite possibly the worst survivalist in all of Europe. He's weaponless the entire film, and bloody useless. He screws over the only decent guy that previously helped him. Way to go Harry, you're a dick. His little sister pretty much whines the whole time and contributes nothing to their survival. She wanders off constantly and is about as useful as a football bat. If anyone deserves to get killed and eaten, it's these two sods. They wander around with such lackadaisical attitudes, it's like they are begging to killed. You're injured, stop make your wound open up Some of the scenes honestly make no logical sense at all. Middle of the night, some girl tries to get in their tent. Apparently, European tents are impossible to breach, because Harry pushes her out, closes the zipper, and that's, that! She disappears, and later some Zombie tries to get in, but I guess, he can't break the forcefield. The whole story is dull and interesting, save the beautiful countryside. Hard pass.