What Still Remains (2018)

One person's freedom is another's prison

By: JWBM

With the population dwindling from a decades past event, human interaction has taken on another life of its own. It comes down to having enough strength and defensive tactics to make your own choices, or having choices made for you by those in a position of power.

"What Still Remains" is a post-apocalyptic drama along the lines of "The Walking Dead" meets "The Handmaid's Tale" that follows a young woman named Anna living on her own in the wilderness. She befriends a kind and hopeful man named Peter who welcomes her to his community to escape her solitude.

The film deals with a mix of emotions: from loneliness, mistrust, control, fear, and hope. Despite more open spaces to roam and lack of laws and government, those still standing become more vulnerable from predatory types lurking at every corner. The story shows us one person's freedom is another person's prison.

The lead character, Anna—played by Lulu Antariksa—feels like she doesn't always strike a balance between her tough, untrusting nature, to looking at the brighter sides of things, to then losing control when the situation gets out of hand. Her role is more show than tell, but her face and body language is often a mask, and doesn't always make you feel the hardships of what she's going through. Some of that could be excused if this were a gritty, hard-boiled action film, but as progressively paced as this film is it's not as commanding as it could have been with a more dramatic involvement. The character of Peter—Colin O'Donoghue—has more of a consistent driving point and duality to his role, but starts to come apart at the seams towards the finale.

What holds the film back from being more powerful is the direction and pacing feels like a formulaic television drama that steadily gives you bit by bit to lure you on. Then due to the shorter length of a feature film, some of the nuances are grazed over and feel rushed for a conclusion. This is not a film that's going for colorful creativity, explosions, gore, or terrifying jumps, but instead the human condition. However, it could have benefited with some more scenes to create its own unique mood, or to actually get the heart racing. If it's any consolation, the story isn't confusing and it moves with you, but without some more thrilling moments, or some break out performances to back up those complex ideas and emotions, the overall experience feels middle road.

Rating: 4/10

Director: Josh Mendoza
Actors: Lulu Antariksa, Colin O'Donoghue
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: YouTube link

It Comes at Night (2017)

Ideals from a past world

By: JWBM

Post-apocalyptic films have typically been the result of nuclear warfare, climate change, disease, aliens, monsters, or even everyone's favorite brain eaters. These atrocities come in waves. There's the first wave that decimates the largest chunk of the population from catching everyone broadside. The second wave typically takes out the non-fighters and the wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time folks. Then there's the third wave that happens amongst those remaining who have pushed their emotions to the side and grew a sense of survival. It's in this stage—specifically where this story resides—that there comes a defining moment. Now, let me ask you, how does the end of humanity come about? Some might say it happens in a slow decline from the initial disaster, others might include it was in fact us, or some might simply add I did what I had to do and don't recognize that as a valid question. Tough to tell who you are till that moment comes.

"It Comes at Night" presents a simple premise about a man protecting his family in a world gone eerily silent. Instead of a fast-and-furious, blood-soaked feature like "28 Days Later," it comes across as something more along the lines of "The Road": where it's less about the disaster and more about the connections and day-to-day struggle. Something is making those still breathing have to wear gasmasks and arm themselves just in case. A family of five—husband, wife, teenage son, grandfather, and dog—are holed up in the thick of the woods in a barricaded cabin. They've already established a routine for safety, survival, and consistency's sake. Soon enough someone pays a visit looking for supplies. He has a family, he says, that he's trying to protect as well. At first, things look hopeful when everyone combines resources and attempts to break the monotony—though the trust between them never really settles in. 

This is a convincing horror film, though it can feel like an endurance test due to its one-moment-at-a-time pacing. Can you focus during simple, everyday things? Can you read what's on the character's face rather than what doesn't come out of their mouth? Can you keep up with its bleakness? Can you stomach it when the rug gets pulled out from under you time and again? It leaves non-stop action and jump-at-you scares for other features. Instead, it has a tendency to shoot a scene and let it soak in. Then there's the haunting music, grab-your-attention sound effects, and creative angles to capture this building mood that could pop at any moment. There are some basic, but powerful scenes in the house, such as the slow creep-up of the red door—which is the only exit to the outside—and what's frequently happening behind it.

A bulk of the story is captured through the perspective of the teenage boy who still has some emotional connection left to the world of the past. He can't sleep, and, when he does, has startling, drenched-in-sweat nightmares as to what happened, or what's to come from it all. Some of his dreams were unsettling and frightening to witness, even for the brief duration his mind manifested them. Experiencing this through the senses of the characters, on the one hand, keeps the viewer in the dark as to what is happening at large, or what is happening at all at times for that matter. But, on the other hand, it also makes it a little more terrifying as a result from walking around blind to the ominous surroundings without a stick for guidance. It, for sure, gets your brain to turn after the curtains come to a close to make a specific point. Though not sure how much staying power it will have on the second go considering, at heart, it's a simple plot that's mood driven and not filled with layer after layer.  

Rating: 7/10

Director: Trey Edward Shults ("Krisha")

Actors: Joel Edgerton, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Christopher Abbott

Info: IMDB link

Trailer: Youtube link