"Die Alone" - A Half Assed Review

Fitful sleep, combined with periods of being awake, is part of my life now. I have become so used to it, when I wake up at Dark-Thirty to  stumble to the bathroom to pee, I will often wonder, will I be able to go back to sleep? Often I cannot get back to sleep. 

One of my first remedies is to turn on the TV. Nine times out of ten, I fall asleep before the first commercial. If that doesn't work, I watch the movie or TV show and then reset the sleep clock to catch a few winks before it's time to feed Maggie and head outside to face our day.

Last night I was waking up every 45 minutes or so. So I turned on the TV and picked a movie I would not normally choose. It was another of the many, many Zombie chomping Apocalypse End of the World extravaganzas, but on a low budget. With a title like "Die Alone", I was sure it would be boiler plate, rehashed Zombies chasing normal people who are stupid enough to get caught kind of movie. I did not expect any twists I had not seen before.

As it turns out, "Die Alone" was a pretty standard Zombie movie but with a few tweaks that caught and kept my attention for the most part. I only remember dozing off once and that was only for a few minutes. I would have welcomed the sleep, but my brain obviously had been stimulated enough, it was not going to let me sleep. It wanted to watch the movie. I almost expected it to ask me to make some popcorn.

I won't repeat comments from the one review I read, but it was a decent movie with less of an emphasis on the actual horrific scenes of Zombies and what they were having for dinner; rather it focused on the characters and their interactions that built to a unique twist at the end.

It was filmed in Canada on what appears to be a typical Canadian budget. I found it refreshing to watch a film that did not take the easy path and glorify the violence between survivors and Zombies. Watching Zombies get mowed down by ever more complicated machines of destruction does nothing for me. This film caught my attention early by creating a mystery in the first 5 minutes. It isn't a great movie, but certainly better than the average Zombie/Apocalypse stupidity that make up much bigger budget films. Zombies were not the center of attention, the interactions of the characters was. Plot and characterizations, not special effects, drive this movie.

The few slow moments do not detract from the overall quality of the film. Yeah, I'd recommend it.

In some ways it reminded me of "The Road", a very good 2009 apocalypse film based on the excellent novel by the same name. There are no Zombies in "The Road". But it has a similar feel as "Die Alone" as it depends on characters and a sincere plot. 

Keep it 'tween the ditches .......................................

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The logical choice for this post would be a tune about, named, or at least containing a vague reference to Zombies. The Cranberries' fine song, "Zombie" immediately came to mind. The problem though, was I used a Cranberries tune for my last post. Two songs in a row from the same group is not allowed per the rules I set up back whenever it was I made including music with posts part of the package. I figured, if I couldn't entertain with my words, I'd include the efforts of people more talented than I as a consolation prize for any disappointments people might have after reading my dribble.

I considered breaking my own rule. I remembered I have always considered self imposed rules with a kind of fluid adherence. If the mood suited me, I broke them in a heart beat.

Without further ado; here are The Cranberries, and their song, "Zombie".