HOSTILE is a Belgian post-apocalypse film, of all things, and absolutely dreadful with it. Things start out routinely enough, with a girl battling zombies and the like in a MAD MAX-looking world, but then somebody had the genius idea to pad out the meagre running time with endless flashbacks revealing the lead's relationship with her partner. In other words, a sci-fi thriller turns into a slow-burning romantic drama, and the viewer's interest drops dead. By the time of the oh-so-predictable twist at the end, I was struggling to stay awake through this tedious mess of a film.

Julia (Brittany Ashworth) is living in an apocalyptic world, searching for food, gas, and killing cannibalistic humanoids in a desert type environment. The event is recent and we don't get a clue as to the cause until late and how the world became a desert so fast is unexplained.

However, this film is not about Julia having to survive after a mishap, but it is a love story that fills her flashbacks with a Frenchman named Jack (Grégory Fitoussi). So if you are more interested in watching a love story than science fiction thriller, this is it.

The film was a decent production for what was, mostly a one person play. However, it is not something I enjoy.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity

Sometimes you have to take the opposite to make things work. In this case, it is not just about post apocalypse or how we got there (humanity that is),but what was before and what formed our main character. Now there almost always is a reason to why we see something in flashbacks, so we can wait and see what this is and what it means.

Having said, the horror and the intercutting/editing works quite well. There is blood, there is violence, there is romance and there seems to be no hope at certain moments - will there will be more will to survive and is there more to certain things than the eye sees? The film has an answer for that ... it may feel out of touch for some and for others it may be a mind blowing reveal ... whatever the case this is more than decent