Review : Exit Humanity

Year Released : 2011

Director : John Geddes

Cast : Mark Gibson, Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace, Adam Seybold, Jordan Hayes and Brian Cox

Described in the trailer as “this is not a movie, but a piece of cinema,” Exit Humanity makes a bold promise about what it is about to deliver and as far as I am concerned, it certainly delivers on that.

Edward Young (Mark Gibson) returned to his family following the American Civil War and had settled down to a normal life, however, upon a return from a hunting trip, his family has disappeared and the area is infested with zombies. Young soon discovers Isaac (Adam Seybold) and they venture to find the latter’s sister (Jordan Hayes), who has been kidnapped by an insane army general (Bill Moseley). Throughout Young is struggling to come to terms with the new world and slowly loses his grip on reality and his sanity, and attempts suicide on numerous occasions. The eeriness of his feelings comes out with the haunting quote “If this is the humanity that is left then I need an exit!”

Divided into chapters, this “piece of cinema” has many fascinating sub/mini-sections, including one where Young captures one of his infected neighbours and tests what they are capable of via various experiments. One of the more fascinating chapters explores the origins of zombies, and although in some senses it is a little far-fetched, it’s as good as a theory as you’re likely to get in most zombie films.

Presented with a mix of live action and animation, Exit Humanity is visually stunning, and whilst the action is little and far between, I have never seen a film with as much character development, and Young’s slide into insanity is a fascinating journey, no more so than when an early suicide attempt fails and he realises that he is forced do with what he has.

The soundtrack and settings almost act as individual characters, with haunting melodies played on banjos accompanying the characters through their journey amongst sweeping landscapes. Wide open spaces may not fill you with dread, but certainly bring you into the main character’s feelings of isolation, especially early on the film before he meets Isaac.

Reviews have generally been mixed throughout the history of the film, however, the comments from those who have viewed it and reviewed it negatively seem to revolve around the theme of there being long spells between story advancement, but I personally would much rather have characters built to the level where you can what happens to them. Too many films from the zombie genre have too many characters that you don’t even know the names of, let alone care about whether the character lives or dies.

Exit Humanity only has nine characters that get decent screen time, but each has an excellent level of character development, ranging from Young and Isaac, to a doctor who questions his own faith in medicine and science as he can’t figure out what is happening or how to stop it. There isn’t a single weak character in the film, and you even care somewhat for the antagonists.

Zombie films could learn a lot from this movie. It is an exceptionally intelligent film that doesn’t treat it’s audience like they are gore-obsessed morons. Too many zombie films are just obsessed with showing hordes and hordes of people getting bitten and/or dying on a regular basis, and I’ll be honest, I have grown very tired of the genre, however, this film is a cut above not only most zombie films, but most horror films.