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I Am Alone
USA 2015
produced by Michael A. Weiss, Robert A. Palmer, Suzy Beck, Lynette Bean for Abstract Forces
directed by Robert A. Palmer
starring Gareth David-Lloyd, Gunner Wright, Marshal Hilton, Rory Zacher, Katy Bodenhamer, Stacie Healy, Robert Allyn, Dave Frank, Dalyn Pearson, John Best, Chayson Bean, Rick Bresett, Bobby Morgan, Randy Bresett, David Hardman, Valor Morgan, Robert A. Palmer, Gary Bean, Suzette Owen, Thomas Loureiro, Gary Cotton, Sandran Lundberg, Mayia Harris, Vondra Harris, Joe Orwan, Paul Southern
written by Michael A. Weiss, Robert A. Palmer, music by Adam Sanborne
review by Mike Haberfelner
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It sounded like a brilliant idea for a TV show that Jacob (Gareth
David-Lloyd), Mason (Gunner Wright) and Adam (Rory Zacher) had had: Just
let David get lost in the Rocky Mountains with tons of lightweight camera
equipment to document his life in the wild. There's really very little
that could go wrong, they had done similar programs before, Jacob's the
born survivalist, apart from a freak bear attack, the region holds little
actual threats, and should bad come to worse, Jacob can always be tracked
via his cellphone ... But of course, while David's off in the wild, the
town he's supposed to meet his friends/colleagues again experiences a
freak zombie outbreak, and Adam is one of the zombies' first victims,
while Mason's doing everything he can to make it to his meeting point with
Jacob - which sounds much easier than it is, since the town's not only
swarming with zombies but also trigger-happy militia, nobody really in
charge to take care of the situation - and no cellphone signal to warn
Jacob what's going on ... And this warning, Jacob would have needed
badly, as in his first night alone in the wild, he's bitten by a zombie,
and he slowly, very slowly turns into one of them. He does everything to
hold onto his human life, also not knowing what's actually happening to
him, but it gets harder and harder ... I Am Alone is one
of the few films that actually finds something new to talk about within
the zombie mythology, making this one about an infected trying to hold on
to his humanity, and on top of that tieing this guy's struggle together
with the fate of humankind in a framing story. And in this context, even
the (by 2015 grossly overused) found footage approach works, as it's
properly integrated into the story rather than just being a gimmick to
save time, and with plenty of cameras to get different angles from for
diversity, it's also one of the most properly edited found footage flicks.
And add to that a really solid cast and a very fluent directorial effort,
and you've got yourself a pretty good movie!
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