Here Alone

USA • 2016 • 98m •

• Directed by: Rod Blackhurst. • Starring: Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti, Adam David Thompson, Shane West, Holly Adams, Abel McSurely Bradshaw, Jonathan Gundel, Mary Guzzy, Aubrey Hart, Willow Keith, Mike Lavarnway, Sophia Nickerson, Jeffrey Rinick. • Music by: Eric D. Johnson.

After an outbreak that turned the people into zombies, Ann, her husband Jason and their baby daughter flee to woods in the place where Jason was raised. He teaches his wife how to survive in the wilderness but their baby and he die. One day, the lonely Ann helps the teenager Olivia and her stepfather Chris that is seriously wounded to survive. When Chris is recovered, he invites Ann to move with Olivia and he to the North. However Olivia has an unforgiving secret about the death of her baby and she decides to stay. Soon Chris and Ann have one night stand and Olivia is jealous with the situation. When Chris and Olivia are ready to go, Ann suggests that they should scavenge food in a nearby farm. She goes with Olivia to bring food from the kitchen while Chris creates a diversion to the zombies outside. However things go wrong with tragic consequences.

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Trailer #1

1:32

Trailer #2

2:27

Review:

I wanted to take a minute to give you a little bit of background on our work. HERE ALONE is a story about relatable characters existing in fantastic circumstances. So while the film is set in a post apocalyptic landscape, with an infection lurking beyond the borders of our protagonist's woods, HERE ALONE is about humanity and relationships. Our main character Ann, played by Lucy Walters, is an emotionally damaged warrior. She may not be fully equipped to survive in the circumstances David wrote for her, but she's doing everything she can - because she has to. Past the daily routines we observe her struggle with we quickly realize that this film is about loss, pain, and human connection. As a filmmaker I'm inspired by the power of craft to convey a sense of tone and feeling - without words. The first 30 minutes of our film are largely dialogue free but not just because Ann is struggling to survive alone in the woods months after a strange flu like virus wiped out society. As a filmmaker I'm inspired by directors like Denis Villeneuve, Kelly Reichardt, and Michael Haneke who through craft can make you feel something without saying anything. That immediate sense of loneliness, despair and dread just happens to butt up against our elevated genre setting.

We made HERE ALONE to have agency over our careers. We bet on ourselves when nobody else would. Our work as narrative and documentary short filmmakers showed that we could tell powerful stories that reached audiences. Yet in order to make the leap to telling feature length narratives we recognized that we needed to build upon our creative acumen and produce HERE ALONE ourselves, carrying it from concept to audiences independently.

We believe that HERE ALONE builds upon our efforts over the past few years and shows our understanding of how to craft an independent film, with a very low budget, that is dramatic and expressive. We also believe that HERE ALONE will appeal to fans of well-crafted psychological dramatic thrillers and elevated genre films - again showing our understanding of what it requires to tell a simple and powerful story while at the same time respecting the intersection of art and commerce. We know that the film has it's constraints and limitations - because we only had a few dimes to make the film with - but we hope that the team proves our capabilities as a group of friends and collaborators.

We hope you enjoy the film for exactly what it is and was meant to be.

Review by Rod Blackhurst from the Internet Movie Database.