I Am Alone |
USA • 2015 • 88m •
  • Directed by: Robert A. Palmer. • Starring: Gareth David-Lloyd, Katy Bodenhamer, Gunner Wright, Marshal Hilton, Robert A. Palmer, Rory Zacher, Dalyn Pearson, Thomas Loureiro, Dave Frank, John Best, Gary Bean, Robert Allyn, Michael A. Weiss. • Music by: Adam Sanborne.   Jacob Fitts television host and survivalist, with his crew Producer Adam Levine and Cameraman Mason Riley set out to shoot another episode of their popular reality show, I Am Alone. Episode 113 takes us deep into the Colorado Rockies where Jacob will be left alone for 7 days while his team sets off into town to capture footage and shoot interviews. Within hours a viral outbreak spreads rapidly across the globe. Unaware of this outbreak Jacob who's isolated continues to shoot his Tv Show. As day one comes to a close Jacob is attacked and bitten by an infected person. As the virus spreads through the town Mason and Adam have to fight the infected to save their own lives. With the CDC monitoring the outbreak they pick up Mason and all his footage and bring him back to base for questioning. Reviewing Mason's footage the CDC tries to piece together why the virus has taken longer to fully take control of Jacob. The CDC forces Mason to relive the events of the previous days through his footage uncover an antidote.
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Review:
Michael A. Weiss (writer) has worked on numerous projects and in many different positions, from Grip (Movies 101), to Assistant Camera (Pimp My Ride), Editor (Unconventional) and even Producer (People Of Earth). Here he gets his chance to try his hand at writing a zombie story like no other, and working with veteran co-writerdirector Robert A. Palmer (People Of Earth, Elysian, The Potchki Chronicles) they have made something which almost flies in the face of conventional horror movie making.
The movie stars Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood) as Jacob Fits (host for reality TV show "I Am Alone"), and Gunner Wright (My Haunted House) as Mason Riley, and his role is to monitor Fits' progress as he continues to film and document his trials while being all alone in whatever environment the reality show calls for him at the time. This is the setting for this movie's "zombie apocalypse" as some unknown virus is causing the townsfolk of Montrose, Colorado to slowly degenerate into this movie's zombie threat. While that may seem somewhat ordinary as far as zombie movies go, it is in the story narrative that the film establishes itself.
Much of the story (both Fits' and Riley's) is told through the form of flashbacks (by way of found film footage that both Fits and Riley were taking simultaneously). Riley's footage is basically about a man on the run as he tries to evade his zombie pursuers. Where his scenes stand out are those in the CDC bunker. Virtually everything there is "told" from the POV of the security cameras that monitor and document everything that is happening. Gunner Wright really shines in those scenes as a man who is frustrated at his sudden captivity, as well as his sense of helplessness in trying to understand why all of this has happened, as well as what has happened to his best friend (Fits). It's safe to say that practically no one has gone through what Riley is facing while in the CDC bunker. Actors usually try to draw upon some type of reality in their lives in order to fuel the performance needed for the role they are playing, and Wright does a magnificent job at giving us a character that is beyond both frustrated and terrified. Also the use of "security cameras" as our means to watch what is happening in the room is very unsettling. It creates a sense that there is a dispassionate observer on the other end. Then again I have always found such film techniques to be very disturbing.
Then there is Gareth David-Lloyd. All of his scenes are "found footage," and as the movie progresses we see how Fits, after having is close encounter with a zombie, is gradually losing himself. It starts with issues of fatigue, and then his mind starts to go. It is here that this film is now compelling. David-Lloyd, more than convincingly, gives us a character who is degrading right before our very eyes. The use of the footage that documents this gives us the feeling that we are there with him. We are now more than just witnesses to this terrible plight he's facing. Now we are with him on this terrible journey he's on. We believe that he's slowly losing himself to this affliction. His performance pulls us in and we forget that we are watching a horror film, but instead start to believe that we are also watching some found footage of a man succumbing to a terrible disease, with an even more terrible ending. Where he found the internal motivation to deliver such an acting performance escapes me. It was to this movie watcher, nothing less than brilliant. Of course I must also give compliments to the writing, the directing, and the editing of those scenes. The writing gave David-Lloyd the wonderful material to draw upon, the directing helped him to focus his acting energy with just the right level of intensity, and the editing gave those scenes the ideal pace that could have ruined an otherwise Oscar worthy acting performance.
The movie has a very open ending which may seem distressing to some, especially if they are watching it for the first time. However as I re-watched it and thought about it I realized that Weiss and Palmer were trying to create something that would defy convention. The typical horroraction movie would introduce your players, then subject them to the story threat, followed by the resolution as the survivors manage to escape their doom. However I Am Alone isn't that type of film. Through the use of found footage this film becomes a psychological study of what happens when a person becomes a victim of the zombie apocalypse. This isn't about a movie threat that needs to be overcome before the ending credits. No, this is a movie about the human condition, and what happens when it is slowly eroding away as it does with Fits, and with a movie that explores this topic under such a zombie threat, there can be no real ending. There can only be despair, and that is why the movie succeeds at being a true horror film.
Review by TGGeeks from the Internet Movie Database.
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