Director – Brett Bentman (The Night Before, Hot Dog)
Starring – Kate Kohler (The Sauce, Arriving), Ashlyn McEvers (22 Jump Street, Star-Crossed), and Lance De Los Santos (1917, Breakers)
Release Date – 2016
Rating – 2.5/5
Tagline – “Run. Fight. Survive”
My indie horror marathon is winding to a close and I have to admit that I really enjoyed myself. When I returned from vacation I decided this was the perfect time to dive into a Wild Eye Releasing marathon. I started with Bonejangles before leading into Clownado and Countrycide.
I enjoyed all three and decided to squeeze in one more flick. This time I went with the 2016 post-apocalyptic tale Apocalypse Road. I want to take a second to thank Wild Eye for once again hooking me up with another movie for review.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows two sisters who are struggling with their own pasts as they fight in a world in which civilization has crumbled. They heard stories about safety near the coast and make an effort to get there but soon find themselves separated. The two go very different paths but refuse to let anything come in between them reuniting. **Spoiler Alert**
I was really looking forward to this one. I love post-apocalyptic films and was really looking forward to an indie one. Sadly, this one was more like a drama centered around sisters than an action or thriller post-apocalyptic flick.
The acting in this one is solid but the characters are extremely vanilla. The film follows two sisters and they chose to cast two ladies that look similar. This makes sense but due to their personalities being identical I often found myself confused as to who was who. I get that the cast was doing the best with what they had but everyone just came across as extremely flat and easily forgettable.
The story for this one is simple and could have worked but instead of focusing more on the perils of a crumbling society we find two sisters who, in all fairness, are pretty shitty human beings that will do anything to reunite with one another. I understand that the story was trying to portray the two as dedicated to each other but the things they do to innocent people to reach each other is despicable. Honestly, the drama and dialogue made it a rough one to sit through. I often found myself checking the running time to see how much longer was left. The action was limited and the character interactions were drawn out.
Finally, the film has a few kills with some blood but don’t expect scenes full of gore and carnage. We mostly get gun shot wounds with decent effects that fit the film but nothing memorable. Overall, Apocalypse Road is a film that has a solid story but the delivery is just all wrong. The characters do not stand out and the story is very dialogue heavy. I really wanted to like it but at the end of the day I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it. Wild Eye has several amazing movies I can recommend but this is not one of them.
