One of the newest films that have come out on Netflix, that you might have noticed on the service is a South Korean zombie movie titled #Alive.
The plot of the film is about a grisly zombie outbreak that rapidly increases within a city. John-Woo is a man who lives in his parents apartment that is one of the higher rooms. As the outbreak increases, and resources become sparse, John-woo does what ever he can to escape his apartment and survive.
Within the first few minutes of the film, it wastes no time diving head first into the action. Our protagonist is doing something, and before he knows it his friends and family are contacting him, letting him know about all the commotion. Then John-woo looks at the news, and peeks out his apartment window, and we see the zombies quickly wreaking havoc and infecting others. The first act really leaves no time for us to breath with its fast pace and quick editing. You are constantly on your feet, and something is always happening. This style of editing does not stop in the beginning, but is continued through out the film in different parts.
John-woo, after realizing that he can’t go outside without getting infected, resort’s to barricading himself within the apartment. As one can assume, his family wasn’t able to come back to the apartment anytime soon, so he has to stay there, and adapt do his current situation.
There is a clear and transparent comparison to how John-woo is tackling this problem, and how we are dealing with COVID. Fortunately, this parallel doesn’t seem as ham fisted as other films out there right now. How the main protagonist deals with the zombie outbreak, is a pretty accurate representation of what most people would do in the given situation. We would all go to our devices immediately, most of us wouldn’t savor the last meal we have in our food storage. The film isn’t weighed down by the nonsensical horror cliches that we are all used to, each decision or choice made in the film, is more or less logical.
I enjoyed the movie pretty thoroughly, and I feel that it used up its runtime pretty sufficiently. It’s tense, engaging, and interesting from start to finish. My critiques are that it is a pretty generic and formulaic genre film, that we’ve all seen before. Even if the quality is a tad better than the other zombies movies out there. I also mean that the ending is very predictable and there a few nuances to the film that separates it from others. It is definitely word the watch though, if you have the time.
Cedric Cinema 