Written and directed by Adam MacDonald, based on the novel of the same name by Courtney Summers, Sloane and four classmates take cover in Cortege High to escape a world plagued by the infected. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of those who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands. Starring: Olivia Holt, Froy Gutierrez, Carson MacCormac, Luke Macfarlane, Corteon Moore, Joelle Farrow and Chloe Avakian.
After years and years of saturating the market with zombie films and television shows, it has become one of the hardest subgenres to explore with originality. We’ve seen so many of these stories that in order to create something memorable or lasting, it has to have something unique, fresh or think outside of the box, sadly This is Not a Test doesn’t have any of that. So, if you’re a dedicated zombie flick fan, a big fan of teen cinema, or maybe even just one of the cast, then you’ll find something to enjoy but for everybody else, it’s likely you won’t get a great deal out of this.
While the opening does provide a nice hit of nostalgic, being reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead, it doesn’t go down that route of simple violence, thrill and survival, it takes a distinctly adolescent path. If there was ever a group of people you would not want to be stuck with during an apocalyptic event, it’s teenagers. They can be so petty, dramatic, hormonal and over-reactive, and This is Not a Test is pretty good example of that. To put it simply, they’re all fairly irritating characters, and without any adults around, there’s no-one to balance that out.
Granted, thankfully Luke Macfarlane does eventually arrive and gives a nice reprieve, as well as a fantastic performance. He’s the absolute highlight of This is Not a Test, the strongest performance it has to offer by miles, although sadly his part is fairly short lived. His arc is what the film needed more of, if the rest of it could match that energy, it would be a lot better off. The rest of the performances are rather disappointing, particularly Olivia Holt because she makes Sloane, the lead in a survival flick, feel like she has no survival skills. Even simple how slowly she reacts in the early scenes of the film makes it highly unbelievable that this girl would last five minutes in a zombie apocalypse.
The other reason her character is frustrating is the forced emotional storyline. As a book, with the space to add some layers to that emotion and explore her background, it probably works well, but here it feels more like manipulation, adding a sob story to make you sympathise with Sloane, and it’s entirely unnecessary. Whereas so many other great characters take the pain from their lives and turn it into grit and perseverance that helps them to survive, Sloane doesn’t have that. Added to Holt’s rather sentimental, damsel in distress-esque, performance, she doesn’t make a good fit for a leading character.
Another issue is that Adam MacDonald doesn’t really present This is Not a Test in a good way for viewers to invest in it. The opening and a number of the early scenes feel incredibly rushed, they’re jumping around from moment to moment not giving you a chance to get to know these characters or connect, only for it to then slow down dramatically. Added to its strange use of metal to accent scenes in an awkward way, it makes a poor first impression. It feels like it’s all over the place, constantly up and down and not giving you enough to hold your attention and make you care about the outcome.
This is Not a Test is hampered by its endless teen angst. Luke Macfarlane steals the show and proves yet again what a surprising range and presence he has, well beyond his Hallmark era. The direction itself is fairly decent, with a few shaky exceptions and a strange attempt at using an out of focus shot as a reveal when it doesn’t really hide anything. The story is lacking in a true draw to hold the audience as it’s overtly sentimental and can be quite slow. With it being so full of teens, it’s probably going to work best for those viewers, but it feels like another case of a story that likely worked much better as a book than a film. It’s sadly a very average zombie outing which is a shame as Adam MacDonald’s last outing Out Come the Wolves felt like he was heading in an interesting direction.
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