Deadly apocalyptic virus? Check. Obligatory social media presence? Check. Clueless people who have clearly never heard of Romero, being overwhelmed by cannibalistic, shuffling corpses? Of course. #Alive is a 2020 South Korean Netlfix zombie flick for the social media age by director Cho Il-hyung, itself based on the script by writer Matt Naylor for upcoming American zombie film, Alone. Pitting a successful gaming live-streamer against a horde of undead, there’s a certain #fml sentiment to his horrifying predicament. In a time where zombie viruses continue to plague horror cinema and the real world deals with a global viral outbreak of its own, does #Alive present enough unique themes to stand out from the horde of shuffling cannibal corpses, or is it #JustAnotherZombieFlick…?
“Everyone outside… is running around like they’re crazy. You’re alone, right?”
Following in the steps of Train to Busan (2016), #Alive introduces us to Joon-woo, a video game live-streamer who lives with his parents and sister in an apartment complex. However while his family are out, news reports inform our protagonist of a rapidly-spreading disease which causes its victims to crave human flesh, certainly not helped by those soon-to-be-infected who seem to have forgotten all the lessons they should have learned from Zombieland‘s Columbus. The main bulk of the film sees Joon-woo hold up in his apartment, trying his best with what limited everyday life skills he has to wait out the horde of decaying corpses gathering outside his apartment building, while communicating with a girl in an apartment in the opposite building.
There’s an almost comical element to his clueless approach to surviving without his family, in contrast to his more sheltered yet confident online lifestyle as if poking fun at younger generations and their reliance on technology, adding a sense of emotional distress when he realises how much of a struggle his survival is going to be. That being said, it’s when he begins to use gadgets such as a drone to his advantage that you start to see him wise-up and find a sense of hope in his otherwise hopeless situation.
“Infected are known to show violent tendencies, and the symptoms of the infection also include episodes of screaming and bleeding of the eyes”
#Alive‘s zombies are brutal and make use of disturbing make-up effects to carry a Korean horror aesthetic
One of the strengths of Cho Il-hyung’s apocalyptic zombie flick comes from its setting, recalling the 2018 Dominique Rocher The Night Eats the World, in which the protagonist similarly barricades himself in his apartment building in the face of a zombie apocalypse. The predominant use of this single location adds a tension that largely stems from the isolation of the character as he is drip fed news about the situation outside, trying to ration supplies as best as possible while struggling to get a decent data connection for his phone. A sign of apocalyptic times to be sure. Mingled with some comical elements thanks to his declining ability to cope in his lockdown, perhaps mirroring the isolating effects of lockdown in reality, the drama is made more vivid thanks to the decaying host besieging his building outside – exacerbating his situation just a little. In fairness to him, it’s hard to concentrate on cooking noodles and which packet of dry goods is for which day when several hundred or more decaying corpses groan and moan outside your kitchen, even if they are several floors below.
As the title might suggest, #Alive focuses more on the survival side of the zombie apocalypse, as opposed to action-oriented titles like the Resident Evil film franchise. This allows it to focus more on the characters and their desperate struggle to survive, while heightening the few moments of action with a strong feeling of anxiety, constantly reminding us of the shambling corpses outside. One of the more tense scenes sees the fallen makeshift zip-line used to exchange supplies with his neighbour attract the attention of agitated zombies, including an undead fireman who shows signs of intellect as he remembers how to use a rope to scale walls…
Yoo-bin: I didn’t save you.
Joon-woo: What?
Yoo-bin: I said, I didn’t save you. You saved yourself because you wanted to live. Your eagerness to live is whats keeping you alive.
Joon-woo: Yeah, but still… Without you… If I’d never met you, I wouldn’t be here now
Yoo Ah-in stars as Oh Joon-woo, a social media savvy live-streamer who impressively retains his platinum blonde dyed hair in peak condition as he struggles to cope upon finding out his family became a main course for a hungry horde of corpses. We are presented with a character overcome with grief and lacking in the confidence to deal with isolating from a ravenous undead army, adding a psychological layer to the film that may remind viewers of how isolation can force us to face some of our own fragilities. Park Shin-hye’s Kim Yoo-bin, meanwhile, provides our protagonist with a new found sense of hope as another survivor to communicate with, albeit via walkie-talkies, a drone, and a make-shift zip-line to send supplies over the heads of the invasive corpses bellow. Both characters are clearly meant to represent the social media conscious teens and young adults of today and being so far apart adds an intrinsic feeling of urgency when zombified neighbours attempt to break in.
However there are times when the social media presence in the film feels a little forced. In particular, Joon-woo’s recordings for his surviving viewers, or the way authorities find survivors based on social media activity comes across as notably unrealistic – as if flesh eating corpses aren’t. Surely people have more immediate concerns than updating their social media pages? Then again: #ZombieSelfie, anyone?
“I’ve been… stuck at home for two full days now. “You must survive. You must survive!” That was the last text message I got from my father. But you see, I don’t really know how I’m going to survive this. It’s a miracle that I’m still alive and recording this right now”
Alongside the likes of The Night Eats the World, this South Korean zombie flick has an interesting premise that may hit home, quite literally, for audiences, while being besieged by an unrelenting, ever hungry army of the dead, of course. #Alive does a lot with a limited space, making use of its single location to echo the isolating feeling of lockdown now familiar to so many, matching the horror waiting outside the apartment with the intense psychological effects of isolation. And even when the quieter moments are interrupted by a bloodthirsty undead, it never feels like a cheap jump scare. Perhaps the takeaway from Cho Il-hyung’s zombie horror is that while lockdown might have been rough, at least there wasn’t a gang of blood soaked zombies waiting for you outside…!
