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Reviewer: Horrorphilia Jason

The basic premise of the movie is about a family of four – father, mother, brother and sister, are all on the run to survive in a post apocalyptic world. There has been some undisclosed “event” that occurred, that killed many people and left the rest to fend for themselves. The family stops at an abandoned gas station to get supplies, when suddenly the father sees a group of rogue “bandits” arriving at the gas station. Fearing for their lives he instructs all of them to go running through the woods away from the station. Soon after they find out that they are not alone, there is something else in the woods that is much more dangerous than what they could ever imagine.

I’ll go ahead and start off with the positives. The music in the movie is friggin awesome. Its a super intense orchestral score but doesn’t sound at all what you are traditionally used to. There is a Celtic or European type influence in the sound which makes it really unique and stand out. The sound design was pretty solid all the way around.

The cinematography was also top notch. A majority of the movie was shot in the woods and there were some pretty cool camera angles and focusing tricks that were really effective. During the action sequences it helped make it that much more intense. There were a few cgi moments in the city at the beginning but all of that was pretty convincing looking. So the dvd overall looked and sounded awesome.

While the story wasn’t the most original I still thought it flowed effectively well. The whole family dynamic for this type of situation felt really fresh and I enjoyed the different take on it. Some of my favorite scenes are when the Dad and Son are having their heart to hearts. I kinda wish there were a few more of these type of scenes. Even though its slow in some parts there was an element of mystery to the movie that had you guessing of what was going on that worked. The horror in the movie was more psychological and reactionary since you wdon’t get to see a lot of whats happening. (For a good reason that the ending explains.)

Ok now its time to reveal my biggest beef with the movie. The acting. Now what I’m referring to is subpar acting for this type of material. The actors weren’t bad as like in the “Troma” sense of the word. I just didn’t feel like they had enough acting chops to carry this type of movie. This movie has some raw, emotional and intense scenes which required a really strong actor to pull it off. To varying degrees I had an issue with all of the main family actors. I know its an indie horror movie but the movie would have played so much better with other better seasoned actors. When you get to a few of the big reveals of the movie they could have been seriously intense and harrowing in the right actors hands.

I don’t want to spoil the ending but It’s generally not the type of twist ending that I really enjoy. Throughout the movie I had my suspicions that it may end this way but it was so well done that it didn’t really bother me.

I normally don’t rate this way but I wanted to break down my ratings in a few categories so you can have a better understanding from where I’m coming from.

Story: 7
Cinematography: 8.5
Sound and Musical Score: 9
Acting: 5
Overall Rating: 6.25 (not an average)

Overall I do recommend checking it out if it sounds likes your type of movie. It’s not really a gorefest but it relies on heavy characterization and dramatic elements. Unfortunately the acting dropped it down from making it something truly special. Over Justin McConnell did a solid job directing and I think he has mad potential to creat something uniquely special. Let’s just hope he can get some actors that can rise up to his vision.

For more information on the movie check out www.thecollapsed.com