Another indie film illustrating how a keen eye and decent script are of infinite more importance than big budgets and cg monstrosities. This is a film that will likely only appeal to the devoted genre fan with enough patience to endure a meandering first act, but for a directorial debut, this is remarkably well done. While minimalist in budget and direction, there are some truly excellent shots and cinematography throughout. There are many thematic and directorial influences on display, with a strong affinity for John Carpenter’s Lovecraft overlap. This movie gets quite good, but it takes excruciatingly long to get there, and the viewer is forced to endure some agonizing conversations and interactions. The entire first act feels like a miserable holding pattern that may be intentional, as it reflects the relationships of the main characters. But we spend far too long luxuriating in the sourness of their relationship to feel any genuine investment in their survival when the second act goes apocalyptic. For a miniscule budget and isolated location, this film manages to convey the sense of global apocalyptic events quite effectively. There have been many Lovecraft inspired entries this year, but this film is arguably the best in capturing that feeling of cosmic existential dread, even if it does degenerate into comfortable zombie fare for a moment or two. This movie manages to incorporate pandemic horrors, ecological terror, instances of grotesque body horror along with existential dread and cosmic indifference. There are some somewhat disjointed surrealistic sequences and strange asides throughout with an ending that will likely alienate most viewers, but this movie is worth a watch and certainly worth the time of genre fans.