31 Days of Halloween 2018: The Night Eats the World

2018, Dominique Rocher (debut) -- download

So, first thing, when I saw Marmy had grabbed this one, I was rather confused. I remembered the blogposts and it had been clearly a French movie set in Paris. But her copy was obviously English and obviously not dubbed. Turns out it was filmed twice; once in French and again in English. I kind of love that, as it opens up the audiences but also retains itself as a movie by its director. The crime series Hinterland did something similar filming the show three ways: in Welsh, in English, in the more likely mix of the two.

Anywayz, onward...

When is a zombie movie not a horror movie? Well, sometimes when they are comedies but more often than not, they are always horror. This one? The debate will rage, but I saw this as a cerebral survival movie. Many reviewers saw this as interminably boring but I was rapt with attention.

But I may be biased.

For years, I have had recurring dreams and I have crafted story snippets and flash fiction set around the Last Man on Earth. Zombie fiction lends itself so well to this idea, but in general, creators don't use it. Almost all zombie apocalypse movies are group events, so they can pick off the survivors one by one, or at the very least make the Walking Dead commentary about how mankind is the real monster. My focus is on the Lone Survivor and how they deal with their solitude as well as the dangers. So, I absolutely love how this story aligned with my thoughts...

Sam goes to a party to argue with his ex, and to retrieve his box of cassettes. The party is annoying and he feels alone and isolated. An elbow to the face and a few drinks sends him to a room with peace & quiet, where he falls asleep. When he awakes the place is in shambles, the walls painted in the blood of conflict but the entire apartment eerily empty. It doesn't take him long to realize the zombie apocalypse has happened and he is trapped inside building by himself. The rest of the party goers have been killed. He is alone. And from the utter silence outside, all of Paris has been affected.

And thus begins a zombie movie that jumps directly into my headspace. Its not concerned with conversations on the existential dread and anguish and fear. Sam is focused on survival, but since he is alone, he never verbalizes what he is going through in those initial days and weeks. Immediately, he gathers food and protection and ... stuff. But as time and the alone-ness of it all settles in, we see how he is affected in his actions, not always his words.

I also was rather taken with some of the tropes they overturned. For example, if you peek into a place where the dead might be wandering. Are you going to creep around quietly hoping to surprise the quiet dead? Or will you do as me and Sam would do, banging & yelling to attract any monsters that might be around the corner. So with precision and only a few missteps, Sam is able to secure the apartment building for himself.

Yes, I said 'quiet dead' which makes so much more sense than the moaning masses. If they are dead, their lungs don't work and they don't need to breathe. Autonomic vs somatic. So, why do so many zombies cry and groan and crackle? Rocher's zombies bang and claw and snap, but they never make a  single wheezy noise. Creepy !!

The movie has little action, and focuses around Sam as he hides and survives and slowly uses up all his resources and sanity. The middle act covers the methods Sam survives, through paint ball guns and gathering water on the roof and keeping himself occupied with percussion experiments (tunage!) and whatever he had on those cassettes he came to collect at the beginning of the movie. But eventually his isolation begins to take a toll on him. Enter Sarah.

I won't go any further, for the sake of spoilers, but an event changes the direction of Sam's living arrangement. He will have to move from being the safe alone guy, to being the On The Move guy. From survival to road story and hopefully we will get that movie.