Made Out Alive

Let's face it, low budget, yeah no crap. Why is that even a comment in the quality or vision? I applaud the accomplishment of the movie for what it is. The story is pretty good, the acting is pretty good. (you can occasionally tell who the free extras are) But for the most part the story is engaging, builds suspense and delivers a plausible and entertaining ending.

Thought: Maybe run it through new motion stabilizer software and rerelease.

Three friends by the name of "Richard" (Brandon Piskorik), "Mike" (Aaron Isaac Vasquez) and "Jason" (James Garrigan), are going fishing and decide to stop off at convenience store only to find it completely deserted. Richard stays behind at the store while Mike and Jason decide to look for a gas station. On the way to a gas station they run out of gas and end up walking down the road. While walking a hysterical person appears from the nearby woods and warns them to flee from there before running away himself. During the encounter Mike accidentally drops his cellphone on the ground. As they proceed down the road they witness a person being attacked by 3 or 4 people and hide in the underbrush to escape detection. They arrive back at the convenience store only to find Richard lying semiconscious in the rest room. When they get him to speak he tells them that he won't let the same thing happen to him and then shoots himself in the head. Shocked and unable to believe what just happened they finally decide to leave the store. They walk out with an empty gas can to a nearby barn and get some gasoline from a riding lawnmower. Suddenly they see people rapidly approaching them and they run as fast as they can to a house where Jason is accidentally shot in the shoulder by a person named "Clint" who is hiding in the house with his girlfriend, "Stacy" (Hannah Morgan). Since I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, I'll leave out what happens next. I will say, however, that it was a shame the producers of this film didn't have more resources available to them. I don't say this derogatorily because I'm sure they did the best with what they had available to them. However, in some cases the lighting wasn't up to standard, the character development was poor and it was clear that the zombies were simply regular people running at full speed with a minimum of makeup. In that regard, some special effects would have helped this film immensely. On the other hand, there was good suspense and the music complimented the film pretty well. And while the acting wasn't very good, it seemed sufficient for the most part with Aaron Isaac Vasquez and Hannah Morgan probably performing the best among their peers. Again though, the producers had to compensate in that department and they did the best that they could. In short, this is a very good effort by those involved in the production of this very low-budget film. However, in all honesty this is a film for zombie fans only because they are probably the only ones who will make allowances and appreciate the final product.

Concept and setting were good, acting and camera work were mostly pretty good. Directing, scene plotting and plot development left a lot to be desired. Some events were too unclear; some character actions seemed random or lacked explanation.

Normally I'm okay with artistic plot devices that leave something to the imagination, but when critical events occur that leave you unclear about WHAT happened and not just WHY, it becomes annoying. Also I'm not sure if these were actual "artistic devices" or just plain bad editing.

Bloopers: Guns were obtained and then suddenly seemed to be no longer present or changed hands without explanation at least three times. At least two critical events were somehow skipped over or something so that it was hard to know what happened. The "zombies" and effects were OK, but only OK. Nice try guys, but it needs work.

It's a pity, this could have been a six-star movie, but I can only give it a four due to its flaws.

I enjoy low budget movies, I do not seek flair and grandiose but I do believe people should stick within their financial means. In other words if you have £500 don't make a movie about UFOs attacking earth.

Indie movie creators have the habit of leaning towards the zombie sub-genre because they are cheap to make. But they still do require money to an extent to look credible and they alike every other genre require some talent.

Made Out Alive is a criminally boring, dull and lifeless zombie film which doesn't deliver on any front. The cast are so generic you could easily mistake one for the other, the script is poor, the soundtrack is bland and the whole movie is outstandingly boring. I don't mean it's because it isn't action packed, it doesn't need to be but it does need to have substance and this is lacking.

Horrible excuse for a movie let alone a zombie one.

The Good:

About 2% of the script

The Bad:

Shoddy editing

Unforgivably boring

Bland characters

Dreadful sound quality

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I still hate sprinting zombies

When recording a movie it's advisable to use a microphone as opposed to a potato