{"id":1651,"date":"2016-04-26T17:42:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2016-12-24T10:54:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T15:54:16","slug":"tribeca-film-festival-film-review-alone-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/tribeca-film-festival-film-review-alone-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribeca Film Festival Film Review, HERE ALONE"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gregg Morris<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Rod Blackhurst’s HERE ALONE, just two days ago selected as\u00a0the 2016 TFF Audience Award Winner for Narrative, is an exquisitely crafted piece of suspense and horror that will reach\u00a0into the hearts and souls of audience members. Gripping storytelling that doesn’t rely on\u00a0gratuitous gore and violence \u2013 not easy for a “horror” story in these times.<\/p>\n

This reviewer was\u00a0lured<\/em><\/span> to a TFF March screening\u00a0and\u00a0attended with expectations he was about to see another\u00a0film of\u00a0the\u00a0Zombie Apocalypse Genre.\u00a0Lured<\/em><\/span>?\u00a0Well, I was in the mood for a TFF horror movie and there was the\u00a0publicity pitch catching my attention: A virus has ravaged human civilization, leaving two groups of survivors: those who have managed to avoid infection, and those driven to madness, violence, and an insatiable bloodlust.<\/i>\u00a0The survivors and insatiable bloodlusters\u00a0 were co-habiting terrain “in the deep woods?”\u00a0Sounded familiarly zombic to me.<\/p>\n

For the sake of being factually correct, the bloodlust-ers were actually insatiable flesh eaters whose rabid and ravenous ripping and tearing of flesh caused a lot of bloodletting. But, I repeat, not one iota of unnecessary gore.\u00a0Truth be told, “zombie”` was never used in the publicity but, as a Walking Dead and George A. Romero aficionado \u2013 some of Romero’s\u00a0key characters and heroes years and years ago were black males\u00a0\u2013\u00a0my mind filled in the blanks.<\/p>\n

Lured.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0And then, of course, there was the face that could scare the bejesus out of Leatherface<\/a>\u00a0of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre Franchise episodes\u00a0or Freddy of the Nightmares on Elm Street franchise: On HERE ALONE iconic banners and posters,\u00a0the portrait\u00a0of an enigmatic face indelibly smeared with what I believed at first was face being consumed by fleshing eating goo\u00a0and\u00a0muck.<\/p>\n

\"1000wherealonne\"<\/p>\n

But the goo smeared on that face wasn’t\u00a0indelible\u00a0and\u00a0instead was\u00a0used by Ann, played smartly by Lucy Waters, as camouflage\u00a0for her to go about her survivalist rituals which\u00a0included searching for food in\u00a0remote houses possibly\u00a0staked out by\u00a0flesh-eaters. Early moments\u00a0into the movie, her visage\u00a0suddenly flashed\u00a0on screen\u00a0\u2013 that was a surprise \u2013\u00a0and at first I thought that the tortured face had been\u00a0horribly disfigured. Subsequently, and surprisingly, moments later we see her in a lake where she bathes and\u00a0cleans herself.\u00a0A surprise, that’s for sure. And there are lots of other surprises in this move\u00a0which weaves in flashback-like scenes for its haunting narrative.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0plot (for the first 60 or so minutes):<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a terrible virus ravages human civilization, Ann finds herself living alone in a forest, foraging for supplies, and accompanied only by a radio that broadcasts a single transmission in French. Few animal remain; the only survivors seem to be the roving hordes of infected creatures with a taste for human flesh. One fateful day, Ann crosses paths with two more survivors, Chris, played by \u00a0Adam David Thompson, and Olivia, played by Gina Piersanti, and she saves them. \u00a0She has survived\u00a0on\u00a0her own for so long, and has experienced and witnesses horror and\u00a0terror\u00a0but\u00a0bregrudgingly\u00a0relates to them as fellow humans. Chris wants her\u00a0to join them and move on. As Ann tells Chris, \u201cThose who stay, die.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The last 37 minutes was riveting. It was then that I suddenly became aware that the suspense had been building and building.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to say any more because I don’t want to be a spoiler for the legions and legions I hope see this movie. But I want to write\u00a0this about two horrific scenes: A mom\u00a0discovering the pus of an ugly developing canker, the telltale sign of the virus that has been laying waste to millions, on the body of her child only a few months old.\u00a0 And a noninflected survivor opening up about how he had to shove\u00a0a butcher knife into the ear of someone he once loved. Cringe, I did; cringe, you will too.<\/p>\n

Every element in this movie is superb: Directing, acting, cinematography, the minimalist music score and the editing, just to name those.<\/p>\n

\n

Director:<\/em> Rod Blackhurst
\nScreenwriter:<\/em> David Ebeltoft
\nProducer:<\/em> Noah Lang, David Ebeltoft, Rod Blackhurst, Arun Kumar, Josh Murphy
\nEditor:<\/em> Rod Blackhurst
\nCinematographer:<\/em> Adam McDaid
\nExecutive Producer: Kevin Iwashina, Eric Schultz, Leigh Jones, Ian Keiser, Paul Ebeltoft, Gail Ebeltoft, Sinan Germirli, Paul Pathikal, Bradley J. Ross, Brendan Walsh, Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Marc Bortz
\nComposer: Eric D. Johnson
\nCast: Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti, Adam David Thompson and Shane West.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Section: Midnight
\nYear: 2016
\n97 minutes
\nEnglish
\nUSA
\nPremiere: World
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gregg Morris can be reached at gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gregg Morris Director Rod Blackhurst’s HERE ALONE, just two days ago selected as\u00a0the 2016 TFF Audience Award Winner for Narrative, is an exquisitely crafted piece of suspense and horror that will reach\u00a0into the hearts and souls of audience members.…<\/p>\n

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