Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Alone Blu-ray Movie Review

She can't fly, even with her own wings.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 13, 2023

A remake of the Swedish thriller Gone with a screenplay by the original film's writer/co-director Mattias Olsson, John Hyams' Alone is so painfully generic that it's not even the only awful 2020 movie with that title. That criticism extends to its story, a mushy mess full of cat-and-mouse thriller clichés that's barely worth a summary. Essentially, this is the same "woman kidnapped by creepy guy" film we've all seen a thousand times over, which means that the maximum score something like this can hope for is a 3/5, or maybe a 3.5 if it brings something new to the table.

Alone brings nothing new to the table. We're wordlessly introduced to thirty-something Jessica (Jules Willcox) as she packs a small trailer full of belongings, leaving a few larger items behind as she tows everything to her new life. In a sequence swiped almost wholesale from Steven Spielberg's breakout TV movie Duel, Jessica runs into trouble when a slow-moving driver torments her on a long stretch of road, even almost causing an accident before mercifully veering away on a different path. Happy to be rid of the danger, Jessica stops for gas and has a terse phone conversation with her dad, where we get hints of family turbulence and the reason for her sudden departure. Suddenly, the same driver appears in the distance, watching Jessica, and later even approaches her in person to apologize for his behavior on the road. We immediately know something's up despite his unthreatening, milquetoast appearance -- think Ned Flanders with aviator glasses -- and this predictability is what strips Alone of any lasting thrills and chills.

I haven't seen the original film Gone... but it can't be worse than Alone, at least where the script and casting are concerned. The former is a slow-moving slog that fitfully builds suspense during Jessica's road trip, only to show its cards too early by revealing her tormentor's face behind a weak disguise of feigned friendliness... not to mention a ridiculous moustache that's about two sizes too big for his face. It soon devolves into a generic hostage situation and eventual escape during five needlessly named chapters -- "The Road", "The River", "The Rain", "The Night", and "The Clearing", each describing the locale where it ends -- that are filled with predictable fake-outs, dumb decisions, and other thriller clichés, including Terminator-style damage resistance where both lead characters flat-out ignore physical injuries that would normally leave them dead, incapacitated, or brain-damaged. And you'd have to be brain-damaged to not see Alone's gaping plot holes or recognize that both leads bring the bare minimum to their flat, one-dimensional characters: Willcox plays Jessica as a cardboard cutout of helpless female victims... but she's at least more convincing than Marc Menchaca as her captor, who's woefully non-threatening, talks slowly and quietly to let us know when he's serious, and just seems like a garden-variety sociopath who's only good at lying to his family back home.

Don't get me wrong: Alone at least has a few interesting moments, it isn't boring most of the way, and its picturesque Pacific Northwest locations are nice to look at. But its cliché-ridden script and laughable dialogue ultimately make this a completely forgettable experience, one that should've been lost in a sea of assembly-line Lifetime Original movies that appeal to base-level emotions and demand almost nothing from their audience. Yet here it is, available on Blu-ray from Magnolia Pictures' Magnet imprint... and while the current price for this basically movie-only disc might be tempting, Alone is a fatally minor entry in a rather crowded genre that probably won't be watched more than once.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Magnolia Pictures' 1080p transfer of the digitally-shot Alone does a decent job with its occasionally demanding source material, maintaining a shadowy and foreboding atmosphere every step of the way: from Jessica's long road trip to a remote cabin, through the dense forest, down a raging river, and out the other side. Fine detail and textures are a bit waxy in all but the most brightly-lit situations, as well as in select moments like extreme close-ups and a brief third-act showdown in which our bruised and battered leads are caked in mud. For the most part it's a film that gets by on tight, workmanlike compositions and heavy shadows, the latter of which come through cleanly with only occasional amounts of banding and posterization marring what's otherwise a largely satisfying and trouble-free transfer. Colors are likewise represented well, mostly leaning muted but with a few vivid exceptions that aren't prone to bleeding or other encoding anomalies. Overall, it's a solid effort that sets the mood and thus gets the job done well enough.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix likewise gets the job done and mostly without incident, though in my opinion Alone could have taken a more aggressive approach to its sound design. Surrounds are used intermittently for general dread as well as more tangible danger such as raging water, a vehicle-roll-over, and echo in empty rooms, but usually not to great effect. One area where the mix goes too loud is its borderline annoying original score, which is mostly atonal and percussive but often fights for attention with the on-screen action -- one key moment during a quiet escape attempt is so jarring that the "music" could easily be mistaken for background noise. Overall, though, the Blu-ray does a decent job with the so-so source material and shouldn't be faulted for that, and in any case is largely satisfactory with clear dialogue and sufficient enough atmosphere to heighten some of its weaker attempts at suspense.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. The bonus features are mercifully minimal, and boy was I relieved that I wouldn't have to sit through a director's commentary.

• Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (4:27) - This brief and by-the-numbers promotional piece features bits of footage from a location shoot in Oregon, as well as short and surface-level interview clips with director John Hyams, writer Mattias Olsson, producer Jordan Foley, and several others.

Alone Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

John Hyams' Alone is a remake of a Swedish thriller with a script by its original writer/director, which may very well be a situation similar to George Sluizer's The Vanishing where its power gets mangled in translation... but at this point, I don't really care to find out. It's a painfully paint-by-numbers affair that mostly spins its wheels, earning a handful of short-term thrills but ultimately failing to leave a lasting impression. Magnolia's Blu-ray offers decent A/V merits and is cheap enough to be a low-risk impulse buy for newbies, but I can't really recommend it in hindsight.