Macabre…ish Horror Review: Die Alone

Die Alone, 2024/ 1 hr 31 min

The world changed and now zombies exist and Ethan (Douglas Smith) is trying to survive it. After being overrun and injured, he’s rescued by a woman named Mae (Carrie Anne Moss). She takes him home and nurses him because Ethan has amnesia. All he knows is his name and that he has a girlfriend (Kimberly-Sue Murray), who he was traveling with and is now missing.

Mae is strange and stern, she’s survived and lived alone a long time. But she’ll help a stranger, from time to time. Little by little Ethan’s memory returns and most of them are scary and sad. Meanwhile, they’ve had to fight off the odd zombie or gang.

And the real story unfolds, what Mae is hiding, who she really is and what she’s been doing for all these years.

•Spoilers• This is a good time to stop if you want to watch the movie unspoiled.

One day Mae and Ethan are threatened by a gang and after a search of the barn, they uncover part of Mae’s secret, a very rustic operating room with what’s left of a man, hooked up to life support. You see, Ethan has been dead a long time and Mae, formerly Emma, has been his caretaker, after he was bitten. She makes sure he is fed and keeps him safe.

You see, Ethan can only eat fresh human flesh and every time he does, he remembers everything. He is flooded with a blast of all of his memories, every horrifying moment of them. But the day after, he may have amnesia, and remember absolutely nothing but his name. He always remembers but recovery is never the same.

Unfortunately, he will need to eat again and when he does, the process starts all over again. Flashes of memory and all of the other times he’s fed, including most of a family who welcomed them into their home, all except the father, Kai (Frank Grillo), who Emma killed to protect Ethan.

Meanwhile, time has been passing and Emma has gotten older while Ethan has remained mostly the same. Now Ethan doesn’t recognize her when he wakes up, so she took on a new persona, Mae, to make Ethan more comfortable. This existence has worn her down and she doesn’t want to live anymore.

During their last hunt, Ethan suddenly remembers and tries to kill himself to free her but he’s already dead. So Mae/Emma joins him instead, having one last kiss as living and undead.

This film was directed by Lowell Dean and I really enjoyed this. This was a very interesting and enjoyable spin on the zombie genre. Complete with different kinds of zombies. This movie turned out to be something of a love story full of yearning and loneliness. It was an unexpected surprise.