Directed By Adam MacDonald

Starring – Olivia Holt, Luke Macfarlane, Froy Gutierrez

The Plot – Sloane (Holt) and a small group of her classmates take cover in their high school to escape their suddenly apocalyptic hometown. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of people who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, suicide, adult language, some sexuality and brief teen drinking

This Is Not a Test | Official Trailer | Independent Film Company

POSITIVES

If for some strange reason you’ve ever been curious about what The Breakfast Club would be like under a zombie apocalypse, Adam MacDonald seems to aim to satisfy your curiosity, not only in the outlined structure of a group of teenage types isolated from the outside world in the institution they spend a majority of their time in, but also in the strictly stern sensibilities of its tone, which offers a refreshing deviation from most of the other contemporary zombie flicks that aim to inject a light and frothy personality when everything else fails with the writing. To be fair, MacDonald’s adaptation of Courtney Summers novel is far from perfect, but where it works is in effortlessly attaining empathy for Sloane as quickly as the movie’s opening sequence, illustrating a darkly devastating and helpless predicament that somehow makes an invasion of the dead feel like an all expenses paid vacation, all the while condensing the scope of this life-altering tragedy to a few blocks within this small town where seemingly everybody knows each other. Better than anything else, MacDonald is able to maintain the urgency and suspenseful stakes in his direction throughout nearly the entirety of the movie’s 97-minute runtime, wasting very little time establishing this supernatural event taking shape that soils the false sense of sanctity that lingers unnaturally in the movie’s eerily unsettling opening, before then transitioning to the many tense and flammable dynamics that persist casually within this group of unsupervised teenagers when weapons and alcohol are introduced into the fray, and while it’s clearly evident that the movie is limited by such a minimized budget, where the zombies themselves disappear for roughly 45 minutes of the middle section of this journey, it doesn’t sacrifice the compelling environments that are fleshed out so psychologically in MacDonald’s writing, with the use of interjecting timelines to Sloane’s characterization giving us a deeper sense of appreciation for the at-home life that she was able to miraculously survive, despite her own internalized demons constantly nagging at her resilient will to persist through her own isolated despair. As previously conveyed, it’s commendable that MacDonald approaches this and the many gut-wrenching developments with enough maturity to make the character responses feel every bit realistic as they do frighteningly influenced by uncharted territory, offering not a single opportunistic semblance of unintended humor to find its way into the spectrum of his articulated atmosphere, and instead reveling in the uncertainty of a world where each of them is forced to grow up prematurely than they ever could’ve expected, leading to aspects about their respective personalities that convey the bigger picture with who each of them were before the world went to Hell. On top of this, while the limitations do persevere throughout the engagement, its production isn’t without artistic integrity in the make-up and practical consistencies of the limb-lacerating special effects, which rampantly conveys the powerful magnitude of this incarnation of the undead, which feel a lot closer to Danny Boyle’s portrayal rather than George A. Romero. While the cinematography choices threaten to intrude upon the integrity of what’s viscerally depicted, there are a couple of gruesomely lingering deaths that zero in on the anatomical devastation of zombie voraciousness, in order to bake carnage candy for its horror hounds, leaving no doubts about the designation of its R-rating, even as this film clearly values drama even more than its violence. Lastly, I want to give bountiful praises to Olivia Holt, who after a breakthrough performance in last year’s Heart Eyes, cements her scream queen status with a turn that wrenches her emotionally every bit as much as it tests her physically. As previously conveyed, Sloane is a very easy protagonist to thoroughly invest in, as a result of the environmental adversity that she constantly faces at home, however it would be all for nothing if not for the open-ended vulnerability and maintained resiliency that compels so much of the movie surrounding her efforts, and while it would be easy for Holt to rest on the laurels of the character firmly being defined by her trauma, there’s an identifiable spark of earnestness that proves Holt’s determination to flesh out dimensions to the versatility of this character, in turn eliciting a character who is not only one we firmly invest in, but one who we want to see escape safely at the movie’s end.

NEGATIVES

While “This is Not a Test” is an entertaining addition to the zombie subgenre that coherently balances zombie chaos with coming-of-age dynamics, it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel with originality or even unforeseen surprises to its outline, leading to a very predictable engagement that never even remotely snuck up on me once in the same ways that its undead constantly sneak up on their prey. Part of the problem certainly feels like this script is going through the motions of checking off everything that you would expect from other zombie films before it, without anything of substantial originality to stand out creatively, but there’s just as much tediousness that stems from the script’s many unfulfilled aspects that are introduced with the promise of something meaningful, before being forgotten about entirely, such as the film’s 1998 setting being firmly established without any justifiable means of distinction to prove why it’s necessary for this story. The movie could just as easily take place in 2026, as nothing about the wardrobe or set designs seem to spell out reflective designation for the intended age, and while it’s just one of the many unanswered questions about its creativity, it proves how occasionally this story can get away from MacDonald’s firm grasp on the material, leading to wasted opportunities to really show out an appealing style or commentary about the time, but instead feeling as random as anything else going on in the movie. Even the aspects of the script that it takes time to coherently flesh out feel very underdeveloped and in turn unfulfilling, such as an overarching message to Sloane’s newfound will to live, despite so much underneath the roof of this school feeling like it only adds to her depression. Because of such, the direction does feel slightly too heavy-handed in its intention during the film’s closing moments, where the imagery and metaphorical meaning feel practically catered to this ideal on a silver platter, yet falling flat emotionally in how the scene registers to the audience, and considering so much of MacDonald’s writing seems to outline the imperfections of adolescence, Sloane’s transformation feels a bit convenient to feel natural, especially coming on the back-end of what should be the most disarming moment for her of the entire film. Likewise, I found much of the cinematography, especially during zombie attack sequences, to reflect many of the outdated shaking camera captures that felt outdated by 2008 standards, making it a visual chore to even attempt to comprehend what is taking shape, with so much rampant enthusiasm to the way these sequences are helmed. I can wholeheartedly understand that the means is to illustrate tension in the depths of the physical conflicts, however there are so many better methods to coherently flesh out this artistic intention, without anything that compromises the clarity of what’s transpiring on-screen, but unfortunately it never deviates away or smoothly seams out the execution of its practices, instead leading to headache-inducing imagery that detracts away from the investment, especially on a bigger screen playing to a dark auditorium. Finally, while the movie maintains much of its tension throughout a majority of its runtime, the third act comes to eventually sacrifice this once the group decides to leave the safer confines of the school, leading to an overlong and urgency-free final twenty minutes that nearly robbed this movie of its impactful momentum.

OVERALL
This is Not a Test is far from an original or reinvented look at the overcrowded zombie subgenre, but it does provide teenage introspection to environmental mayhem in ways that never sacrifices tension for trauma, all in the encompassing of a strictly serious tone that keeps the heaviness of the situation firmly detected in Adam MacDonald’s double threat of writing and directing. While the film does make some strangely unfulfilling choices with its linear framing, as well as convoluting the very clarity of its zombie action, it’s all held together by Olivia Holt’s ferociously feasting performance injecting life to a story overwhelmed by death, providing a solid adaptation of its literary counterpart that bites in all of the right places

My Grade: 6.1 or C