Last Survivors – Movie Review (4/5)

LAST SURVIVORS is a new thriller of the very dystopian variety. A simple plot with strong performances makes for a very intense movie. The movie had its world premiere at FrightFest. Read our full Last Survivors movie review here!

LAST SURVIVORS is a new thriller with a small cast. While the plot is also quite small in a sense, it hits damn hard. With strong performances to carry the simple plot of this dystopian thriller, you should be entertained from start to finish.

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Very appropriately, this dystopian movie had its world premiere at FrightFest 2021, which is how we screened it now. It’s due out in wider release in early 2022.

Continue reading our Last Survivors movie review below.

A strong trio to lead

The small cast in Last Survivors is led by Drew Van Acker, Stephen Moyer, and Alicia Silverstone. Overall, this is mostly the story of Drew Van Acker’s character, but you will also get background stories for the characters of Stephen Moyer and Alicia Silverstone.

In fact, this is a huge strength of the movie. Especially since their stories are very unique and relevant to the core plot of surviving on your own.

Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Drew Van Acker (Pretty Little Liars) play father and son while Alicia Silverstone (The Lodge, Clueless) is an outsider. And that’s all I’ll say about their respective roles to avoid spoilers. I will, however, point out that I was very impressed with all three performances.

Last Survivors would not work as a believable story if they didn’t. Kudos to the cast for making this plot work as well as it truly does.

A real passion project

The principal cast members – the above-mentioned Drew Van Acker, Stephen Moyer, and Alicia Silverstone – are also executive producers of this movie. And I do actually think that you can feel the kind of commitment to and passion for this project that comes from being involved on a deeper level.

Also, I have to mention that this movie is produced by Sunil Perkash who has been involved with some huge Blockbusters. Including Salt (2010) starring Angelina Jolie.

However, he began his production career on Guillermo del Toro’s feature film debut Cronos (1993) as the U.S. production coordinator. He then went on to produce Blast from the Past (1999) starring Alicia Silverstone, Brendan Fraser, and Christopher Walken.

Still, Last Survivors feels like a very different kind of movie. Probably because it’s smaller and more intense in both its story, cast, and production. Fortunately, all of these things work in its favor!

Last Survivors premiered at FrightFest 2021

Drew Mylrea is the director of Last Survivors which is only his second feature film. His first was Spy Intervention from 2020, which also starred Drew Van Acker. Josh Janowicz is the screenwriter and he previously wrote and directed the sci-fi thriller Life Like (2019) which also starred Drew Van Acker.

Yes, it does almost seem like Drew Van Acker is key to this movie being made. While I have always liked him as an actor in various movies and TV series, I really do think this character was perfect for him. He’s that ageless kind of actor, who can still play a teenager or young adult despite being in his 30s now (he was born in 1986).

There really wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy about Last Survivors, but I do have to keep this review short to avoid spoilers. Honestly, I expect many will guess most plot twists ahead of time, but that’s fine. Us viewers aren’t supposed to be shocked. But Jake (Drew Van Acker) surely will be and that is the point!

LAST SURVIVORS had its world premiere at Frightfest Film Festival on October 30, 2021. The film will be out in Theatres and On Demand on February 4, 2022 (exclusively on DIRECTV January 6 – February 3).

Details

DIRECTOR: Drew Mylrea
WRITER: Josh Janowicz
STARS: Stephen Moyer, Drew Van Acker, Alicia Silverstone, Mark Famiglietti