Die Alone – Reviewed
by Thom Ernst – Film Correspondent
(September 26, 2024 – Toronto, ON) Die Alone is a shocker; just not the shocker I imagined. Not even close. And I’ll gamble it’s not the shocker anyone else imagines either. But to steer anyone away from their preconceived notions of what they believe a zombie movie would be a cheat. Worse. It would be an absolute spoiler.
Go to Die Alone lugging every bit of baggage you’ve gleamed from the dozens of zombie movies you have seen before. You won’t be wrong, but neither will you be right. The living dead still find ways to snack on the soon-to-be-dead living. You won’t be disappointed even if things play out exactly as the genre dictates. There is enough gore to satisfy fans of the genre, plus the added fall-out from an apocalyptic world gone mad with paranoid survivalists and marauding gangs of independent military groups with a shoot first, interrogate later policy. So far, so familiar.
And then things begin to tilt: Allegiances are questioned, empathies shift, and even affections become unhinged. Only Ethan (Douglas Smith, pictured above), a young man who wakes after a car crash, alone and with amnesia, can be trusted. All else, whether threatening or come to his aid, are entirely who they claim to be. But by the time you figure out that this is not the traditional zombie movie, it’s too late. You’re hooked. And the power, of what the film is really about hits like a bolt of lightning.
As a zombie movie, Die Alone is standard—although zombies transitioning into plants, like decaying borgs with plants rather than machinery sprouting from their skulls and ribcages is a new twist. If Die Alone reimagines any genre, it’s the romance film—a love story and a mystery.
Director/screenwriter Lowell Dean has created a haunting romantic thriller. The zombies may not be the film’s heart but are essential to the story. Dean could have rested using the zombies as window dressing, giving this romance an interesting backdrop or twisted perspective, but the story could not work without the zombies. And for a romance, that’s quite the feat. Intricately plotted, with a reveal that unravels as it sinks its teeth into the truth.
Dean sets his story in a dystopic future where a virus is transforming dead people into walking, hungry agricultural beasts. Ethan has amnesia, remembering only his girlfriend who is now nowhere to be found. The last thing he remembers is crashing their car into a tree. When the man wakes, his girlfriend is gone. He goes on a search for her when he runs into Mae (Carrie-Anne Moss, pictured above), a tough, no-nonsense survivalist who takes him in, but then blocks his every effort to leave. Mae seems determined to keep Ethan from reuniting with the one person his memory has not allowed him to forget…his girlfriend, Emma (Kimberly-Sue Murray).
Die Alone is masterfully constructed. A tale of humanity, even as humanity is undermined by greed, and a need to survive. It is directed by Lowell Dean and stars Douglas Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kimberley-Sue Murray, and Frank Grillo.
Thom Ernst is a Toronto-based film critic and writer and an active member of the (TFCA) Toronto Film Critics’ Association. His work has appeared in various publications including Playback Magazine, The Toronto Star, and The National Post. He is also a contributor to Original Cin. He was host, interviewer and producer of televisions’ longest running movie program Saturday Night at the Movies.
