Movie Review: 'Alive' Starring Angus MacFadyen (Not the good Netflix 'Alive')

This review is something of an experiment. I am hoping that by the end of this writing I will know for sure whether or not I actually like or don’t like the newly released horror movie, Alive starring Angus MacFadyen. I am genuinely of two minds on the movie. On one hand, I watched all the way to the end and I really wanted to know how it all turned out. On the other hand, the lead performances are mediocre at best and only the clumsy mystery at the center of the story kept me watching.

Spoiler alert, I am not sure how much of this movie I can talk about without drifting into spoilers. I am going to try to be spoiler free but the most interesting aspect of the movie is in the spoiler territory. I am going to do my best to write around it but be forewarned, I may drift unwittingly into territory that could affect your experience of Alive and this is a movie that really, really needs that surprise factor to have any chance of entertaining you.

The film opens in a dingy hospital, one clearly out of commission, and yet with a patient on a table. Our protagonist, who doesn’t know his own name anymore, played by Thomas Coquerrel, lies on a slab seriously wounded and recently patched back together. Was he in an accident? Was he attacked by a Bear? Who is he and how did he get here? Next to the Male Patient, just a few feet away, and already conscious, is a Female Patient played by Camilla Stopps.

Both patients are scarred and mostly unable to move. The two have stitches everywhere and we can presume from their condition that the ‘doctor’ who is caring for them is likely also the one who is responsible for their condition. The two protagonists make that very natural assumption as well. In the movie, he is known only as ‘The Man’ and is portrayed by former Saw and Braveheart actor, Angus Macfadyen.

The natural story progression is thus, the two protagonists trying to regain their faculties and physical capabilities enough to be able to escape. ‘The Man’ by extension, does what he can to keep them in place. Various attempts are made to escape and these naturally fail, mostly for being far too early in the narrative. That being said, you will not know where Alive is going when it gets there.

Alive carries a twist ending that I never remotely imagined. Does that make the twist ending a good one? Not really. The movie builds a mystery throughout as our John and Jane Doe victims press ‘The Man’ about how they ended up here and their respective identities but the twist is revealed in a fashion that renders the mystery laughable rather than shocking. The final shot of the movie clumsily holds for a beat too long indicating that either the filmmakers failed to realize how funny this moment was or genuinely believed they were being so shocking that they needed the extra beat to really let the surprise sink in.

That is not to say that the movie is entirely inept. Aspects of the movie are strong, specifically Angus MacFadyen, a pro character actor who is terrific at playing hammy evil. In my head canon this was the fate of his character from Saw 4, Jeff Denton. I am imagining he survived Jigsaw’s final trap and this was his fate, traumatized so badly he becomes another version of Jigsaw and goes on his own kind of bizarre killing spree.

I needed the head canon because Alive, on its own merits, isn’t entertaining enough. The lead characters are rather boring and entirely slaves of the plot with no life or agency. They are just here to get us to the twist which is a random grab that even they appear to be baffled by. Being unpredictable is good but being so out of left field random, as Alive certainly is, renders everything prior to the ending a tedious bore building to a tacked on finish that isn’t strong enough to bear the weight of the impatience the rest of the film invites.

Hey, whaddaya know, I didn't like the movie. A solid experiment with concrete results.

Alive is available to stream now, if you can find it. Best bet is searching Angus MacFadyen. There are so many movie called 'Alive' these days that a bad one like this won't standout in the crowd. There is even, what I am told, is quite a good movie called 'Alive' on Netflix right now. I've not seen it myself, I'm a little Alive'd out.