What’s it rated? TV-14
When? 2018
Where’s it showing? Amazon Prime
Dominique Rocher, in his feature-length debut, directs this low-budget French horror film about Sam (Anders Danielsen Lie), who after attending a party at his ex-girlfriend’s wakes up to discover Paris is filled with flesh-eating zombies. Trapped in her apartment, he soon discovers his real battle isn’t with the hungry zombies but his own loneliness.
Based on the novel La nuit a dĂ©vorĂ© le monde by Pit Agarmen, it’s a story of a man going crazy from solitude. At one point Sam sees a cat outside and almost loses his life trying to lure it into the apartment building for companionship. He also begins conversing—one-sidedly, of course—with a zombie named Alfred (Denis Lavant), who’s trapped in the apartment’s elevator. He’s that desperate for connection.
The zombie genre has been done to death (pun sadly intended), but this English-language film (no subtitles!) finds a few unexplored areas to mine. Don’t expect the high production values of World War Z (2013), the comedy of Zombieland (2009) and Shaun of the Dead (2004), or the action-packed adrenaline rush of 28 Days Later (2002), but this small French film offers its own rewards. (93 min.) Δ
This article appears in The Awareness Issue.
