My Review of "Jusqu'au déclin - The Decline"

The Decline was an unexpected surprise movie for me. I didn't know it even existed until I saw some YouTube top 10 videos. I've noticed how often this movie placed high on everyone's list. Even better, it turned out to be a French Canadian film. I rarely check out French Canadian films even though I'm from Canada but this movie made me reconsider my selection in movies. It was that good.

This movie starts with a small family watching a gentleman named Alain in a YouTube video. Alain gives practical tips on how to be prepared if there was a disaster situation. He fears that there'll be a pandemic, economic crash or something that would cause us to have to store food for a long period of time. So you can see how much this movie relates to today's COVID-19 pandemic already.

Everyone wants to be prepared if anything bad happens but there are certain people that want to be extra precautious. The father of the small family watching the video, Antoine, so happens to be one the extra precautious side.

Antoine takes a trip to meet Alain for a sort of boot camp for survivalists. He meets with Alain and you can already tell that Alain has prepped for everything. Alain covers Antoine's car with a camouflage tarp, and gives Antoine googles with masking tape over it while they ride back to Alain's camp.

Mind you Alain doesn't seem messed up at all. He just seems like conscientious individual prepping if animals or people try to rob him. In the movie he actually seems quite amicable but you can sense that he is quite paranoid.

When Antoine joins the camp he's welcomed by a group of other survivalists. They all become good friends and bond because of their shared interest in prepping for a doomsday.

It's actually quite a neat idea and I think in reality a lot of people would like to go to such a camp. Knowing how to take care of yourself in the wild is a useful skill.

Just when you think everything is sunshines and rainbows the exercises they start to do get a little more serious. There's combat training and they also learn how to make bombs.

The movie goes 0 to 100 real fast when there is one slip up with one of their exercises. It only took one accident to show the true colors of everyone at the camp. Paranoia ensues with all of the survivalists and chaos starts to peek it's ugly face into the camp.

Intensity in each of the scenes start to get so thick it's almost difficult to continue watching the movie. It almost borders the line between thriller and horror movie.

Each of the actors did a fantastic job giving life to their characters. You have all different types of people so each of the characters react differently to the situation and makes us guess what is going to happen next.

The use of space in this movie was great as well. The director, Patrice Laliberté, was able to make me feel claustrophobic even in open spaces. Intense is probably the best word to describe the last half of the movie. I can't remember the last movie that I've been that clenched and still care about the outcome of the characters.

Overall, I have to say that this is a must see for Netflix subscribers. Those that have heart conditions or squeamish might want to shy away though. This movie is incredibly entertaining. I was at the edge of my seat for the last half of it. I have to give this movie a 9 out of 10. I loved it and would recommend it to others even though I don't normally like movies that make my blood pressure rise so much.