DIE ALONE - Mark Reviews Movies

Die Alone, Quiver Distribution

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 17, 2024

There's one novel idea about the zombie-like creatures in Die Alone, but to reveal it would likely be to ruin one of the major, late-stage turns of Lowell Dean's post-apocalyptic story. Since this movie is ultimately about trying to surprise us with its last-minute twists, that puts both this review and the movie itself in a tough position. There's not much positive to say about the material otherwise, and there's not much for the material to do with its intentionally evasive method of storytelling.

What we know from the start is that human civilization is in some state of ruin, following an epidemic that turns people into seemingly unthinking creatures. In the middle of this and the middle of nowhere is Ethan (Douglas Smith), a young man whose fate appears to be foretold by a brief prologue. It certainly looks pretty final.

He's in despair after awakening in a car that was involved in an accident. Ethan has no memories of what put him in this position, but he does know one thing. His girlfriend Emma (Kimberly-Sue Murray) was with him, and now, there's no sign of her.

In theory, his search for the woman drives the plot, as Ethan keeps finding himself in potentially dangerous situations. Really, though, it's the character's amnesia that conveniently keeps this story running in the same circle. He makes a step forward, finds himself in peril, and loses his memory, leading him to repeat the process over and over again.

First, he's nearly killed by a couple of a scavengers in a deserted neighborhood, full of abandoned houses with messages of distress painted on the roofs. The imagery here can be occasionally haunting, especially in the early stages of mystery and revelation about what has become of the world. Instructional bulletins about how to prevent infection are postered on walls and litter the ground, and as we learn about the nature of the widespread disease, its victims become more obvious to see, since the virus doesn't simply transform them into zombies. It also makes people look more plantlike (The practical and makeup effects of the creatures are effective, once the silly shock of the first good look at one passes).

All of this comes out in the story through characters explaining the situation to Ethan and the man himself showing that he has that very convenient form of amnesia that helps the story progress. Sometimes, he knows nothing except his name and that he's looking for Emma. At other times, he can recall in specific detail everything leading up to presumably the moment before the accident, including his happy relationship with Emma and the course of the pandemic. We're never sure just how much Ethan remembers at any given moment, because it's more a plot device than an actual condition with which the character has to deal.

Much of the information that Ethan doesn't know, forgets, or occasionally remembers again is communicated by Mae (Carrie-Anne Moss, who surely must have experienced some déjà vu playing a woman who has to help a memory-challenged man figure out the truth), who rescues him from the scavengers and brings him back to her remote farm. Mae's the tough-and-quiet type, who tells Ethan only as much as he needs to know about the world and herself. For all the uncertainty of the plotting and pacing, Moss' performance does keep things centered in a way, if only because her stoic presence is an admirable and fascinating constant.

There's not much more that can be revealed about the back story. Some of that is because too much information would give away the key mysteries, but it's also because the timeline of Ethan's past and what led him to where we first encounter him oddly becomes muddier as more is revealed.

Meanwhile, Ethan searches for his girlfriend and encounters a few more strangers (a mother and her son taking shelter in the cabin where Ethan and Emma were supposed to meet, as well a man who arrives at the farm with unknown intentions). In between, there are flashes of important events, such as the now-separated couple arriving at a gas station and the face of a man played by Frank Grillo.

Grillo's mystery man eventually shows up in a scene that does pretty much explain everything. It's telling that Dean toys with us in that scene until the last possible second, by way of hiding one character off-screen and keeping that character's face obscured. The puzzle of the exposition seems a higher priority to the filmmaker than a sense of consistency in the world-building, the characters, and, well, the general exposition iteslf.

The mood of Die Alone is dreary and haunted by loss, and that certainly counts for something. The monsters look good, to be sure, but the most intriguing thing about them, having to do with the physiological effects of feeding on people, is a core component of the mysteries at hand. Once that and its repercussions for some of the characters are revealed, the story finally shows some promise, but with the puzzle solved, that's also the story's end.

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