Movie Review: YOU ARE NOT ALONE

As a kid, the holiday has always been enjoyable. Mainly because I would hang out with my family and we would shoot of fireworks and liked fire and blowing stuff up. As I grew up, the holiday became a little stranger for me. I started observing it differently where more people use it as an excuse to drink a lot. Like, A LOT. Factor in the intoxication plus the fact that good portion of our population in America injure themselves from fireworks, whether it is a faulty explosive or someone who didn’t know what they were doing. The other thing that I thought was odd is that there is a feeling of anarchy and carefree-ness where some bad things could happen when someone isn’t looking. The new film, You Are Not Alone, captures some of that.

https://vimeo.com/109438361

Shot completely in first-person POV via Natalie, a young woman who is arriving home for the holiday weekend. The film starts innocently enough, Natalie meets up with her friends to catch up on what has been going on while she has been absent. After a party turns a bit on the sour side halfway through the film, Natalie tipsily walks back home to call it a night early until she starts hearing banging which wakes her up from her drunken slumber. She sees a man staring at the house and tries to scare him off by saying she will call the cops but this enrages him to attack, break in and begin terrorizing Natalie.

The story is simple enough but what makes this film different from all the other home invasion films is the effective use of the point-of-view perspective. Director Derek Mungor utilizes his actress, Krista Dzialoszynski, (whose face we never see, unlike previous POV films like 2013’s Maniac remake) to not only bring an emotional gravity to the film but also utilizes her to double as a camera operator (along with cinematographer Ryan Glover) that is a huge success. For the first half of the film the audience gets to know, essentially who they are that by the time the attack happens, all the stakes are raised and we ultimately care about Natalie’s/our fate. If you can think of John Carpenter’s Halloween (obviously an influence, even before the Thank You to Carpenter & Cundey in the end credits) shot via Laurie Strode’s eyes, you wouldn’t be too far off. Granted, the body count in You Are Not Alone doesn’t come close to what is in Halloween as the film is more interested in the claustrophobic atmosphere it is building for the single character. This is a bit of a double edged sword for the film as the “horror” film doesn’t really start until halfway through. For this reason, the film will be divisive among genre fans. I can see most genre fans dismissing the film because nothing really happens for a good portion of the film. In some way, I agree that some things could have been trimmed and shortened but since this is more of a snapshot of time, it also fits the aesthetic.

The cinematography is very top-notch. Yes, the film looks to be shot via a DSLR but it has a very filmic look and some of the sequences, including Natalie’s floaty drunken walk back home, effectively pull off the eerie vibe that is needed. I mean, think about it, while everyone else is shooting off fireworks with loud explosions, who’s going to hear you scream?

A minor gripe that I had was we never saw Natalie’s stalker wear the mask that I have seen in all the promo trailers and posters (and even this review’s featured image) we have been featuring on the site for the past couple of years when this film started as a Kickstarter project.

Even though the end feels a bit rushed and anti-climatic, this is definitely a film that I think shines a new light on the stalker film. Just don’t expect much slashing. Keep your eye on Derek Mungor, he’s someone to watch.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE is now available via VOD.