There are a few things I take issue with this film, but I'll summarize it in that it involves the "realism" of the film itself; and some weird writing / narrative decisions.
First, the good: it was reasonably well acted, every actor does a commendable job considering the material they are working with. They all seem to be fairly amateur actors; too, I think some may even have a future in acting.
The bad? A lot! But mainly 2 things:
1) This isn't "how it would really go down", this is a prepper's wet dream. Now, I have no doubt at all society would eventually break down during a global power outage, but not so fast. I know it was probably a narrative decision to cause a sense of panic, but the "let's kill for fun" faze would take at least a few months. Probably more.
Likely, in a situation like this, the national guard and police would keep order a few weeks, maybe some months. If supplies truly ran short nationwide, the breakdown of society would occur once cops left to fend for themselves, again probably months into this. The film "Into The Forest" does a far better job pacing out a scenario like this.
Especially in small towns, their isolated locations would make it take longer to break down. I live in the Midwest, I've lost power regionally for a week due to storms. No looting. People helped each other. Or in parts of Puerto Rico they lost power for a year+ due to the hurricane. No mass murdering.
Again, a nationwide breakdown would speed up the panic, but 3 days? The hordes "come out of the cities" (?) after 3 days? No.
2) I know the idea for this film is viewing "every day" people dealing with a global catastrophe, but some of the subplots were weirdly unnecessary. The teens going backpacking at the exact moment the disaster starts, just so they naively wander into a camp of psychos? Huh? What the hell was with this subplot? It created really odd pacing where the story jumped back and forth between their dumb teen bliss, and the crisis, for unknown narrative reasons. I suppose they represented "innocence" or whatever. But, it was just stupid.
My biggest frustration is that with the mostly competent cast and a decent premise, this film was a wasted opportunity.
Plot summary
Then There Was is an ensemble thriller which tells the story of four college students, an expectant couple, and a lone survival expert who are confronted by a global blackout that forces them to endure the worst of human nature as society falls apart around them.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
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Not remotely realistic
A spoiler alert for what's coming.
Low-budget, small production, but well-written, well-directed, well-performed. I loved the absurdity of the ending. Humans showing their true nature in the dark, fearing the light. A good theme-partnering with the US government's plans for instigating chaos under Dark Winter directives 3-12. Spoiler Alert: it was never just a "hypothetical" scenario, and the "pandemic" was only the beginning.
What IDIOT thought adding those 4 kids would add anything to the film?
This film needed to be massively edited. The problem was the writer clearly had some kind of ego trip that they didn't their cut out what they thought was significant and important content, which in truth was boring and pointless mundane and lame.
The girls were just unwatchable.
Actually, every character was pathetic.
I have no idea what the point was, other than "guns bad".
The writers and everyone involved in this dogs breakfast should be ashamed. So much potential ruined by amateur skills surpassed by inflated ego.
Any review over 3 is someone attached to the film.
So much potential, ruined by amateurs resorting to cliches, 1 dimensional characters and pointless, repugnant side stories.
I am scatching because I know they are reading this and they deserve it. Well edited, if I were the editor I would not want my name attached to this film