Die Alone Review: Creative & Horrific Horror-thriller

Horror-thriller Die Alone successfully breathes new life into survivalist tropes while exploring the effects of nature’s wrath in a creatively horrific way.

At its core, Die Alone is a story about human survival in a world decimated by … wait for it … a mysterious virus. I know, I know: It’s always a mysterious virus, but this one is different. This virus incited a pandemic unlike anything humanity has ever faced, and it doesn’t just kill its hosts; it transforms them into terrifying creatures known as “the reclaimed”, literal embodiments of nature’s wrath on a mission to recapture the world after humanity’s downfall. They are more plant than people, so typical defenses, like kill shots to the head, do not work. They only buy you time before the reclaimed re-animate and continue their wrath.

When Ethan (Douglas Smith, of The Alienist) regains consciousness after a car accident, he wakes to find his girlfriend, Emma (Kimberly-Sue Murray, of Shadowhunters), gone … missing, he keeps saying. Ethan struggles with memory loss and blackouts but uses his fragmented memories to guide him on his relentless journey to find her. When he encounters and is nearly killed by one of the reclaimed, an eccentric but sharp survivalist who calls herself Mae (Carrie-Anne Moss, of The Matrix franchise) saves his life, then agrees to help him. As the two navigate a depressingly desolate landscape, they run into Kai (Frank Grillo, of Boss Level), another survivor with his own secret agenda.

In a post-apocalyptic world, there are tons of dangers, but in Die Alone, hope is the worst. It’s what submits you to the reclaimed, and then you’re stuck in constant regeneration as nature infiltrates its way deeper into your flesh and bones in its efforts to return itself to homeostasis. And unfortunately, the only way that can be achieved is by not just wiping out humanity but also by ensuring it never returns.

But that’s not all that’s going on here. There’s a great secret driving this narrative that holds some exciting, shocking twists and turns, making for one hell of an engaging watch.

There’s so much I liked about Die Alone: its unique plot perspective, its storytelling, its cinematography and, of course, those super-creative special effects, and its overall message. And I appreciated the key casting choices in Carrie-Anne Moss, Frank Grillo, and Douglas Smith. Moss fit her role very well, bringing the same reserved, mysterious power and intelligence to Mae as she did to Trinity in The Matrix franchise. Same with Frank Grillo. The more I watch him, the deeper I see into his acting chops and appreciate having the awareness to do so. He really has a knack here for bringing an eerieness to this role that is both disarming and threatening. He’s less of a fighting badass here and more of a “something’s off with this guy” kind of character. I found myself wanting to know more about his story … who he was prior to the world’s end and how he got to this point. Douglas Smith portrays Ethan with such relatable vulnerability that his emotions are palpable.

After seeing Die Alone, I found myself left with three wishes: 1) that filmmakers would’ve given us more exposure to the processes, panics, and depths of which nature is taking over mankind, 2), that we’d have gotten more backstory on the virus with accompanying visuals, and 3) that this storyline gets picked up for a series.

Die Alone focuses not just on the physical threats posed by the reclaimed but also on the mental, emotional, and psychological toll of surviving and living in a world where the environment is both your best friend and your worst enemy. And that’s what makes it so terrifying: knowing that we are thisclose to some sort of scenario where the planet lets us know it has had enough of our shit and starts purging itself from mankind’s destruction. Some might even say it has already begun.

While Die Alone puts a whole new spin on becoming one with Mother Nature, it also forces us to consider just how dangerously we are playing with fire across Earth’s landscapes and environments. The real questions are: Are we willing to continue pushing her buttons, or will we take more action to stop destroying her before she owns us in unimaginable ways? You tell me.

Die Alone will be released in US theaters, on digital and on demand on Friday, October 18, 2024.