Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Alone Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 19, 2020

If real life isn’t striking you as being challenging enough these days, you may want to invest in a Blu-ray whose cover features this tag line:

First the pandemic. Then the chaos.

Early in this “new era” we all find ourselves in, I posted several reviews where I stated the Universe (or Whoever is in charge of these things) seemed to have an awfully dark sense of humor, since I got not just a slew of review items that did indeed feature pandemics but also oddly “relevant” films that, for example, featured characters urging people to drink bleach at almost the exact same moment that that questionable activity made front page news across the United States (and globally). At this point in the Covid 19 “adventure”, I am frankly hardly surprised any more by seemingly “on point” films that have shown up in my queue, and so Alone is in fact not alone in that regard. Alone is also among company (so to speak) in its "combo platter" offering of a kinda sorta pandemic that also happens to result in an outbreak of zombies. As such, while the film may seem au courant, it may unavoidably be reminiscent of many other properties as well.

Despite some structural artifices that perhaps tend to deflate suspense courtesy of a revelatory conceit offered early on, Alone details the travails of a guy named Aidan (Tyler Posey), who awakens one morning to discover some kind of viral infection has sent the entire world into a tailspin, something that hits home when a neighbor seems to be suffering from zombie-ism. Aidan ends up holing himself up in his apartment, and eventually grows despondent. About to end it all, he suddenly sees (in a plot point that may irritate the less tolerant) a young woman named Eva (Summer Spiro) who basically lives directly across a courtyard from him (he never noticed her before getting close to suicide?). That sets up a tenuous "relationship" of sorts, albeit from a distance (to begin with, anyway).

All of this isolation may actually work against the feeling of dread that often accompanies zombie films, if only because the threat seems distant and removed. Once the actual outbreak starts encroaching upon the environs of Aidan and Eva more closely, angst certainly increases, even if the film never really ends up generating huge scares. Donald Sutherland arrives somewhat late in the film as another denizen of the apartment house.

Alone may actually work a bit better as a character study than as a perceived genre film, though in that regard the performance styles of the focal trio are often radically different.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Alone is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexa Minis as having captured the imagery, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. The film is actually rather well lit quite a bit of the time, something that may seem a little unusual for a perceived "zombie movie", but it's an approach that supports good general detail and fine detail levels. A surplus of close-ups also delivers some appealing sharpness. There is a bit of haziness that noticeable in some of the most dimly lit interior scenes, and a couple of sequences are graded toward blues, which can tend to at least slightly diminish fine detail levels in some midrange shots. I noticed no compression anomalies of any import.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A reliance on a lot of indoor scenes, as well as long swaths where only Aidan is on screen, can tend to make the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track a little reserved in its immersive capabilities, but there are some well rendered moments here, albeit perhaps in dribs and drabs. Some of the ventures at least ostensibly outside (as in some maneuvers on decks around apartments) can provide sudden placement of startle effects or more natural, wafting ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Alone Trailer (1080p; 2:26)

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Alone has an unavoidably derivative feeling premise, but it at least tries to offer something a bit unusual by tending to focus more on isolation, distance and the psychological turmoil that can result. In that regard, this may hit a bit too close to home for some, considering what's been going on lately. Performances are a bit uneven, but technical merits are generally solid, for those who are considering a purchase.