After an outbreak of some kind, one family tries to survive by not letting themselves get infected by something. You might be thinking, “Oh, come on. You can give us a better description than that” – and you’d be wrong. I don’t know what happened that left this family home stricken in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world, and I don’t know what the infection is that everyone is trying to avoid. Believe me, I’ve watched the movie from beginning to end, and even stayed after the credits, and I have no idea why things are the way they are in the movie. I do know that some pretty awful things happen to and around the family, beginning with them having to execute the man’s father-in-law, and ending with them having to execute the man’s son. Apologies, there will be spoilers ahead – not that I encourage watching this movie.

Don’t get me wrong, this was a very well-filmed and well-written and well-directed movie, but I feel like I’ve started in the middle of an ongoing story and just as I became interested in the plot, I was left with no resolution. I suppose the experience could be best described as someone taking an excerpt from a really good book and deciding to only film that part of the book, leaving the viewer wondering how the story began and how it will end. The acting is brilliant and you really do feel connected to the family after a short while of watching them suffer through these horrific events, I just wish I knew why they had to suffer through them. Of course, there might be a market for this type of movie – who knows? There might be people seeking films with no beginning and no resolution, I just happen to be someone who likes my horror movies to have an ending… and be scary.

Speaking of which, I wouldn’t really call this a horror movie. I mean, the scariest part of the movie is revealed in the trailer, and after that it’s just senseless violence and drama, with a pseudo-romantic love story briefly touched upon. I suppose it could be classified as an extremely depressing drama, just bordering horror. Is horror drama a thing? Picture a drama but instead of ups and downs the movie is exclusively downs. Horrible events unfold one after another with the only logical conclusion (I assume) being everyone dies in the end, but instead of from natural causes it’s from a weird, black infection. “Oh, but tell us more about the black infection, what is it?” you ask. I don’t know, okay? I’m serious. I’m not leaving out some important plot point. People sometimes get infected with a black liquid of some kind and then they have to be shot and burned. That’s all I have.

I can tell you what happens during moments when people aren’t infected. Let’s see… oh, so a second family moves in with the main character’s family. He reluctantly lets them live with them, but as soon as the family’s dog goes missing all hell breaks lose. The dog finds its way back to their home, but is infected so it has to be shot and burned. Each family thinks the other family is infected, so they stay locked in separate quarters of the house for like a day. The next day, the families try taking each other hostage, resulting in the main character shooting the father of the guest family. Seeing this, the wife and child in the guest family attempt to flee, but both are shot by the father of the main family. Thinking the worst is over, the man returns home and discovers his own son is infected with the black shit, and thus must be shot and burned. The man returns home to dinner with his wife. Roll credits.

Alas, since the film starts you in the middle of a plot that presumably began years before the film even begins, and since I felt like I missed a prequel that actually would serve as a beginning, and since I felt like I missed the sequel which actually would serve as an ending, and since the film isn’t scary, I have to rate the film as such.

This movie is…

I can’t really see who the movie was made for, but it wasn’t for me.

Cheers and goodnight.