Die Alone is a great example of how a mediocre flick can saves itself in the third act. Its finale is so good, I kind of hate the movie for wasting so much time in the first two acts. How can it be so meh for so long and yet nail it in the end? It’s a hard question to answer since I can’t tell you why it ultimately works… but I can tell you why it doesn’t.

The flick takes place after a viral apocalypse that leaves the survivors on the run from plant-based zombies (yes, Plants vs. Zombies was wrong). Into this mess comes a young man looking for his girlfriend… too bad he has nebulous amnesia. Carrie-Anne Moss plays a survivalist who takes him in.

A lot of this flick looks and feels cheap but they get some production value filming around decaying ruins. Its plant zombies are actually pretty neat looking even if they don’t feature in the movie as much as they could. It turns out a tree limb growing out of your zombie’s face gives you a different take on a zombie apocalypse.

The film feels just a bit too off in its storytelling and structure. They do a lot of flashbacks to earlier events without warning and the guy’s memory loss kicks in whenever the plot says so. It left me constantly unclear what he does and doesn’t remember about his life, the plague, his girl, etc. It just feels rushed, confused, and incompetently written. But it really isn’t. I think. Maybe.

The finale is strong. It’s meaningful, romantic, and tragic in ways the rest of the movie just isn’t. It’s got a firm grip on its themes which suggests deliberate obfuscation in the earlier acts. The end is so goddamn good, it annoys me how the rest of the film feels like a waste of time. And, to be clear, this ending explains a lot about the earlier scenes… but it doesn’t make them better as scenes.

Die Alone is a different take on the zombie apocalypse and ultimately works and is worth watching, especially if you want something different from the genre. It’s not an easy watch since it’s so iffy half the time, but it works out in the end.

Score: 77