This Is Not a Test review: a big step backward for 2020s zombie horror

This Is Not a Test, written and directed by Adam MacDonald and based on Courtney Summers' young adult novel, promised a "Dawn of the Dead meets The Breakfast Club" twist: a group of teens trying to survive a zombie apocalypse while barricaded in their abandoned high school.

Instead, the story plays out predictably, with a script that constantly telegraphs its twists and saps tension. The film's look is muddy and underlit, as if shot through a glass of murky water, and it lacks the visual clarity and scale seen in recent genre efforts such as 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple or the brighter, more inventive Anna and the Apocalypse.

The cast is given little to work with: Olivia Holt's protagonist Sloane Price spends most of the film brooding, offering little beyond a sustained blank stare. Sloane is introduced contemplating a suicide note in a bathtub, bearing the effects of an abusive father and an absent older sister—setup that could have driven a powerful arc but instead yields no clear growth or urgency.

adam macdonald, courtney summers, olivia holt, sloane price, zombie, zombie apocalypse, young adult, high school, underlit, muddy