If there’s a subgenre in horror that feels intimidating to try to enter, it’d be zombies. There are so many beloved properties that deal with the living dead that it would feel hard to set something else apart from the rest. The thing is though, if zombies have shown us anything over the years is that they are evergreen, and if you have a new idea, or way to come at them, people will pay attention.
FORGIVE US ALL is a zombie film with a Western edge, set in the heart of New Zealand, and presenting everything in a way that sets it apart from other, similar ideas. It’s here, with a unique setting, and character-focused story, where the film is set apart from the others, and what makes it so memorable.
The film focuses on a woman buried in her grief. She has lost the two most important people in her life, and she has no more reason to live. Despite having lost everything, she persists in life, almost as an act of rebellion. When she comes across a wounded stranger from the government, she takes him in, and tends to his wounds, but locks him in the barn. She lives on an isolated farm in the outback of New Zealand with her father-in-law, and the two of them live a simple, quiet life out of necessity as much as anything else. A disease has transformed much of the world into “howlers,” a blood-thirsty type of zombie that roams the land. In the backpack of the stranger she finds an antidote to the disease, and soon learns he is on the run, having stolen it. In this dark new world where survival is everything, the last people you want to have pursuing you are the government, and that’s exactly who’s coming for him, and now the woman.
FORGIVE US ALL is a very well made, and well acted film. First and foremost the focus is on the characters, and this is what really sets it apart from a lot of other similar movies. Instead of reveling in gore, and zombie makeup, we see the trauma and heartache of the characters, and connect with them, making the attacks that happen even more tense. The film uses the landscape to isolate the characters, and the western motif hearkens back to films like “THE SEARCHERS,” where the people seem as ants against the landscape and weight of their reality.
None of this is to minimize the horror of the film, or the zombies, which are horrifying, and reminded me of the infected from the “28 Days” films, in their actions, and some of their look.
It’s a very good film, that is very heavy emotionally, and truly, the zombies are almost an afterthought to what is happening, which is all the better for the film. While there are certain aspects of the film that made me ask unanswered questions – how do they have power? How do the zombies have sharpened teeth? – but they didn’t derail the film.
If you are itching for a thoughtful zombie film, one which has something to say, then you’ve found it. It’s well worth tracking down, and will haunt you, not because of the horror of the dead, but the horror of the living.
3.5 out of 5
Forgive Us All will have its UK Premiere at Grimmfest on 11th October, with a DVD & Digital release on 13th October
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