MaxWhy

I am writing a review for 28 Years Later, Part 1, and I'm calling it Part 1 or Episode 1 because the movie is complete, but the story - the main story - doesn't really conclude at all. We're in the middle of the guy's adventure. The father has yet to find him. There's no real climax, and it leaves you on a hanging edge. That's the only thing I don't like about this movie - it just leaves you hanging. But it was so good that I still loved it.

What I really loved about this movie is that finally somebody in the zombie industry, or whatever you call it, lore, finally somebody explored the thing that I've wanted to explore for years, and that is to see evolving zombies. I wanted that in Walking Dead, I wanted that in Rise of the Undead, I don't remember, but for any zombie movie I always wanted to see, "Oh, look, there's this smart zombie, lord god-sent, cool zombie with intelligence," and, "Oh my god, here's an intelligent zombie." Wouldn't that be terrifying? Yes, that would be amazing, because he starts talking to you and you're thinking, "This zombie can talk!" This concept is so great, and I think 28 Days Later explored this concept with those creatures that are like alphas. That's really smart. It adds an extra layer of intelligence. And then there are the pregnant ones, and I hope to see maybe in the future a kind of super zombie that's actually intelligent like a human and is a dark lord necromancer dude. It would be amazing to see something like that.

To sum it up, the arc of the main character - the boy - feels a lot like you're adventurizing with him. You're growing, you're starting out as a noob, you're going out of the village, you're shooting your first zombie. You're starting out and learning lessons. You're there along for that ride. I really enjoyed that. Kind of like a game, but much better, because it's a movie.

It works really well. The acting was great, the suspense building was great, the animations of the zombies were perfect. Was I afraid? I mean, I was more amazed than afraid during this movie. I was just thinking, "Wow, there's a cool-looking zombie," or something. It's evolving, and there's lore behind it. I just love that. I love exploring the lore, and I like when the movie causes my mind to play a guessing game, wondering what kind of creature we will see next, and to what extent are these super fast zombies intelligent, what is the extent of their capabilities, and so on. I would like them to go even further in the next episode and find a super zombie cool guy who wears a cape - again, just joking - but it would be amazing though.

The main horror elements in this movie were low level, basically visual and auditory--there was horrifying gore and jump scares, but that's about it. It did not have that higher level horror element of the "sense of dread" feeling you get when you actually are freightened by a story, such as in Hereditary or Sinister or Midsommar (depends on your taste). Movies like Hereditary and Midsommar have that extra layer of terrifying depth when you realize the lore behind what is happening. Bring Her Back felt like it missed the mark by not having any depth to its lore, and it only scratches the surface of the ritual and possession. During the movie, there were moments where the story kind of stopped progressing, and all you saw was action (like someone running somewhere). I just found myself waiting for the next visual/auditory scare, and not really invested in the story because it was just a game of cat and mouse, plus cheese in a demonic mousetrap.

But wait, I have a lot of positive things to say about this movie. The directing, and acting, was actually very well done and I like this style of horror. I also like where the creators were going. I also like that they are aware of what people want to see in horror, but they need to focus more on deep lore writing. We would like to be actually terrified by more than just visual and audio based scare tactics. That's what makes a horror movie worth remembering, when you get a feeling of dread from the details of the story, not just be visually and auditorily stimulated.