“I was trying to explain what I like about this movie last night…
I think it’s kind of an unusual movie in that it’s less a movie with a big plot, more a procedural movie. We do this, then this, then this.
It’s also got a good mix of scenes that I would call slower and scenes I would call very chaotic, and there’s something really appealing about that mix of textures. It’s a good way to get out of the normal movie plot/story mix that we usually see, or the normal thing we see in horror where the mix is between lulls and scenes of terror. The terror element is present in the entire movie, without ever really going away, and that sort of lower volume but constant terror really works.
I freaking LOVE that the movie starts the way it does, in the newsroom with total chaos, and we don’t have even a single moment of “Gee, I wonder what’s happening.” It does a super smart thing by starting us at the point where it’s like, “Okay, this is definitely for real, and we don’t know why, but we know a little bit…”
I also really like that this movie isn’t about developing a serum or some shit, and we’re not following the main character of the zombie apocalypse, if you will. We’re following a small group of survivors who are just trying to get by in the moment.
Way too many zombie movies took the wrong lessons from this one. They were like, “Ooh, the real enemy is man!” and “Put it in a mall!” and “Let’s say something overt about, I dunno, capitalism!””