Year 10 – Movie Review (3/5)

YEAR 10 is a new post-apocalyptic survival thriller. There is no dialogue in this movie and it works brilliantly. The core concept is strong and the potential for this movie is much bigger than the result. Read our full Year 10 movie review here!

YEAR 10 is a survival horror thriller set in a post-apocalyptic world. As revealed in the opening of the movie, it began when the dead started eating the living. Now, 10 years down the line, the living are eating the living.

As the movie begins, you quickly notice that nobody is talking. Before long, you don’t even notice no one is talking as the world is so dangerous that staying quiet is for the best. Of course, with the success of A Quiet Place, this feels familiar. However, humans are the true monsters in this movie.

Continue reading our Year 10 movie review below. Find it in theaters and on VOD from December 6, 2024.

A filthy world with no words

The world we’re presented with in Year 10 is filthy and clammy. Water is hard to come by and staying clean is virtually impossible. If you get sick or hurt, your odds of making it are immediately lowered drastically.

Also, you can only trust those closest to you. Everyone else is an enemy. That’s just the default now!

There is no dialogue in this movie at all and it works brilliantly. It makes for a very universal story where communication is body language and knowing what your role within your group is. Aside from fearing human beings, you should also be on the lookout for wild dogs.

We’re ten years into the post-apocalyptic world and nature has a new hierarchy.

The most infuriating main protagonist

I have to admit that while I love the concept and core plot of Year 10, there are some major issues with it. One is the main protagonist, who just cannot make the right choice or do the right thing.

To be fair, if we go by Maya Angelou’s infinite words of wisdom saying “When someone shows you who they are, believe them!” there’s a perfect fit with this character. In the first scene, we see his father having to save him.

And again, we are ten (10!) years into this world, so surely he should know better.

From this point on, he continuously makes the wrong decisions and goes up the proverbial stairs when he should be running out the front door. Oh yeah, Sidney Prescott’s words in Scream are words I live by!

Anyway, that’s one thing I wasn’t crazy about for Year 10 though it’s probably also realistic in some ways.

Strange (and misleading) marketing choices

Much worse is the fact that this movie is sold via a plot that isn’t entirely accurate and a poster that is grossly misleading. If we start with the latter point, the poster shows a wolf and a woman in what appears to be some sort of military get-up.

One, there is no female protagonist in Year 10 so that’s blatantly false advertising. Also, there are no wolves in the movie.

The wild dogs look a lot like Irish Wolfhounds and while “wolf” is part of their name, they look nothing like wolves. Their ears are not upright and pointy for one – which the wolf shown on the poster has. Also, they are huge, but with quite a slim build which is also unlike wolves.

And then there’s the official plot synopsis claiming “10 Years after the fall of civilization, cannibalism has become the only option for humanity’s dwindling survivors.”

However, we never see any of the people from the tribe, we follow, desire human flesh. In fact, we see them hunting other animals, so clearly there are still other options.

Watch Year 10 on VOD now!

The writer and director of Year 10 is Ben Goodger, and while certain aspects of this movie (clearly!) irritated me, I am also fascinated by his world-building. In other words, I am excited to see what he does next and hope he’ll be able to control some of the marketing aspects more.

As in make them accurate and true to what the actual movie is about!

The core actors in this intense dialogue-less post-apocalyptic thriller are Toby Goodger as the main protagonist with Hannah Khalique-Brown (Black Doves) as the woman he tries to save. Also, we have Duncan Lacroix as the father he wants to avenge and Luke Massy as the leader of their enemy.

I recognize that I sound pretty negative overall, but that’s not because this movie isn’t good. In fact, it’s because I feel that it could have been so much better. This survival thriller (with the genres sci-fi and horror on IMDb) is absolutely worth watching.

Just know that you’ll want to yell at the main protagonist for making some really bad and dumb decisions along the way!

YEAR 10 is out in theaters and on VOD from December 6, 2024.

Details

Writer & Director: Ben Goodger
Cast: Toby Goodger, Duncan Lacroix, Hannah Khalique-Brown, Luke Massy, Emma Cole, Alexander Anderson, King Gayle, Jessica Zerlina-Leafe, Tom Gaskin