Antidote

In a post-apocalyptic world, a woman cares for her brother-in-law when he becomes infected with the plague that has decimated the population. A sluggish, low-budget effort that generates a decent atmosphere of foreboding in its early scenes, but goes downhill fast when the action becomes largely confined to one basement. The vacillating of the character played by Kate Flanagan grows increasingly infuriating.

I bought this at a pawn shop for a dollar. I want my buck back! Not enough action.

I was under the impression that this was a zombie movie in some way, so of course I jumped at the chance to sit down and watch the 20134 movie "Antidote" by directors and writers Craig DiFolco and Pete DiFolco.

Well, I managed to endure 42 painstakingly long and excruciating minutes of sheer boredom. Wow. This movie was horribly monotonous, slow-paced, dull and downright pointless. After 42 minutes, I was just ready to claw my eyes out and I got up and ended this misery. And believe you me, I have no intentions of returning to watch the rest of the movie, because the storyline and characters both had absolutely zero appeal to me.

Now, I am rating "Antidote" a two out of ten stars rating because there was something to be said for the production value of the movie. But everything else, just don't even cut it. And a friendly word of advice, don't bother with this movie.

The storyline was so infinitely boring and uneventful that I lost interest in the movie fairly quickly in, but I opted to stick with it, because the movie could pick up its pacing and get into gear. Just never happened and I gave up, tossed in the towel.

And as for the characters, well let's just say that they were as interesting as a concrete sidewalk. They lacked appeal, they lacked interest, they lacked personalities, and they lacked just about anything that would make you have an interesting in watching them on the screen, traversing the apocalyptic barren lands, and they lacked depths and meaning.

All in all, "Antidote" is not worth the effort. Pure and simple.

'Alone' (AKA 'Antidote') is an independent film, that features a small number of main players stuck in a basement, shouldn't be this compelling. This slow-moving study on how a global pandemic can affect one couple, when the man becomes infected, is unnerving and grim - with occasional toe-curling scenes of physical disintegration, of course.

The acting, from main players Kate Flanagan and Michael Izquierdo as Teresa and Matthew is extraordinary throughout, going beyond simply recreating emotions, raw and desperate. This is human endurance gone further than it should, several times over.

By the end though, if there is a lesson to be learned, it is probably this: if things appear to be hopeless, that's because they are. My score is 8 out of 10.