Extinction (film)

Extinction
Directed by	Miguel Ángel Vivas
Produced by	Jaume Collet-Serra Ignacio Fernández-Veiga Feijóo Brad Luff Emma Lustres Borja Pena Juan Sola
Written by	Alberto Marini Miguel Ángel Vivas
Based on	Y pese a todo  by Juan de Dios Garduño
Starring	Matthew Fox Jeffrey Donovan Quinn McColgan
Music by	Sergio Moure
Cinematography	Josu Inchaustegui
Edited by	Luis de la Madrid Jordi López
Distributed by	Vertical Entertainment
Release dates	July 31, 2015 (2015-07-31) (United States)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Spain France United States Hungary
Language	English
Budget	$8 million

Extinction (formerly known as Welcome to Harmony) is a 2015 post-apocalypse horror film directed by Miguel Ángel Vivas who also co-wrote the screenplay with Alberto Marini from the novel "Y pese a todo" by Juan de Dios Garduno.The stars of "Extinction" are Matthew Fox, Jeffrey Donovan and Quinn McColgan .^[1][2][3][4] The film was released on July 31, 2015 in the United States.

Plot

After a virus turns people into zombies, a small group of survivors seek refuge in a snow-covered town, believing the virus and all of its monstrous creations had died out. But they only discover the infected had adapted to the environment change, for worse.

The story starts out with survivors on buses trying to make it to a safe zone. The first bus is stopped and the people in the second bus, including the main characters (Jack, Patrick, Emma and Lu - at this time she is only a baby), see the people being attacked by something. One of the soldiers on their bus goes to check out what has happened, but doesn't return. The second soldier then goes and while outside of the bus door, he is attacked by the infected soldier from before. Jack goes out to get the machine gun off the 2nd soldiers body, when it wakes up and tries to attack him. He fights it off but the entire convoy is attacked by infected. Patrick is able to get Emma and baby Lu out of the bus through the back door. Emma and the baby get separated from Patrick and Jack. Emma finds a car and hides in it. While hiding in the car, Emma is attacked by an infected and bitten. However, the guys get there in time to save her and the baby. In a later flashback it is revealed that they had cut off her arm in order to prevent the infection from spreading.

9 years later Jack and Patrick are living separately in houses next to each other, divided off by a fence. Emma is gone and Lu, who is now 9 years old, is living with Jack who she calls father. It is later revealed that Patrick is her biological father. She was taken away from him by Jack because Patrick became an alcoholic and when Emma was attacked (and therefore killed) Patrick didn't save her when he walked away from her after they had an argument over him being an alcoholic and at that time being intoxicated. Present day: Patrick makes runs into the town to get supplies with his dog. Jack home schools Lu and eventually tells her about 'monsters' and how she is not an adult yet, despite her wanting to be one. Patrick and Jack do not talk to each other, and Lu is forbidden to leave the premises. However, she bonds with Patrick's dog between the fence.

One night Lu has a bad dream and wakes up. She goes to the window because she hears a noise outside and sees a monster. The next morning Jack finds her hiding under the bed. She tells him what she saw but he doesn't believe her. A few days later, while on a run in a warehouse, Patrick and his dog come across a half eaten fox. He follows the trail and sees an infected. He and the dog get on his snow mobile and try to get away, however he wasn't paying attention to the road and hit a fallen tree. On the ground looking up, he sees the face of the infected looking down on him, however it doesn't see him. Instead its ears start moving and is attracted to gun shots coming from Jack's home (at this time he was planking outside with Lu). Patrick gets back on his snowmobile and heads home, firing off shots to warn Jack. However, he attracts the infected and it attacks him. While attacking him Jack points his rifle to shoot, but hesitates. Patrick is bitten on the neck but his dog saves him. While the dog and infected are fighting Patrick manages to shoot the infected. However, the dog is dead.

Lu is angry that Jack didn't do anything to help and that her dog friend was killed. She wants to leave the house to go on runs, or pick flowers for her mom's picture but Jack doesn't allow it. However, during one of his runs, he brings back flowers for Lu. Unfortunately, that night Lu sneaks out of the house to put some of the flowers on the dogs grave. While out there she is attacked by the same infected from before, but Jack gets to her in time. While punching the infected's face he is cut by its teeth and the infected punctures his chest. Jack goes to Lu to see that she is alright, with only minor scratches, and when he looks up he sees Patrick pointing a gun at him, however, when he fires he shoots the infected behind Jack. Jack passes out and when he wakes he finds Patrick with the tied up infected, and starts asking for Lu. She comes out and apologizes, hugging Jack. They learn that even though they were technically infected, they were immune to the disease because none of them turned. Also, they found that the infected had evolved (they couldn't see but they had enhanced hearing), when before they thought all the infected had died out from the cold.

The next day, Lu wants to invite Patrick over for dinner. At first Jack isn't too happy about this, but he eventually agrees. They have a good dinner, and after Lu falls asleep Patrick and Jack exchange words. Patrick had been talking on the radio, hoping someone would hear him. He was in luck, someone had replied. Because of this Patrick wanted to leave, however Jack did not, even after telling Jack they were not living, only surviving. The next day Patrick is ready to leave in his truck when Jack asks if they can join him. He agrees. They go to the warehouse to pick up some supplies. When they exit, Lu sees a woman in the distance. Patrick walks over to her seeing if she is alright. She panics from shock and passes out. The guys take her home and put her to bed, realizing that she is pregnant. She wakes up later and tells them her story. How her group had heard Patrick on the radio and were on their way. However, their convoy got attacked. At this moment she hears the howling of an infected and they tell her it is one they had caught. She goes outside and shoots it with Patrick's gun. She tells them the howling is how they call each other. They start to board up the house when they hear howling in the distance. Many infected come to the house and start to attack when they hear footsteps or noises in the house. Fighting ensues and when Patrick is pinned down, the woman they had saved plays music really loud, causing the infected to stop attacking and cover their ears from the loud noise. Taking advantage of the situation, they start shooting and killing many infected. The generator starts to run out of gas and therefore the music is turned down. The infected start to attack again and Patrick makes a decision to sacrifice himself by luring the infected away from the house, toward the gas canisters near the generator. He tells Lu to remember to brush her teeth before going to bed, something she rebelled against when Jack told her to throughout the movie. He leaves, lighting a flare. Outside he hollers to the infected, they follow. Jack, Lu and the woman get into the truck and drive away, when Patrick drops the flare into the gasoline, blowing himself and the infected up. Jack, Lu and the woman leave Harmony (the town they were in) and finally stop, watching the sun rise in the distance ^[5]

Cast

• Matthew Fox as Patrick
• Jeffrey Donovan as Jack
• Quinn McColganas Lu
• Valeria Vereau as Emma
• Alex Hafner as Lewinsky
• Clara Lago as Anne

Production

The film was first announced on December 20, 2013 as an Ombra Films production, with Jaume Collet-Sera and Miguel Angel Vivas as producers.^[2][4][6]Filming began in Budapest and the first images were released on February 21, 2014.^[5]

Reception

Extinction received mixed to negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 25% rating, with an average score of 5.2/10, based on eight critics.^[7] Metacritic gives the film a 46 out of 100, sampled from four critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[8]

In the New York Daily News review of "Extinction" by Katherine Pushkar entitled "Zombies on Ice" the critic commented on the relationship between Jack and Patrick: "...The movie spends nearly an hour - too long - establishing the bad blood". Considering the zombies, Pushkar noted: "The zombies have evolved. They can now survive cold but they no longer infect people via flesh wounds. Also, they are blind. These are only problems if you're a zombie purist. At least they still want to tear people apart, and they remain plenty scary. If only they had more screen time". Pushkar concluded: "The films core problems: too little zombie and too much plot.The upside though is McColgan as Lu...clearly someone to watch".^[9]

Frank Scheck in "The Extinction Review" for The Hollywood Reporter argued: "If there's one reason to hope for an actual zombie apocalypse, its that there will at least be no more zombie apocalypse movies."^[10]

In his "Extinction Review" for Fangoria, Michael Gingold commented: "As movies about flesh-hungry ghouls have overwhelmed the horror scene...its refreshing when the occasional film puts the people at a premium.Such a movie is Extinction." He added: " ...Vivas wrangles the drama into a quietly gripping survival saga, he and his leads fleshing out the trio of protagonists to empathetic effect." He praised "Pedro De Gaspar and Miguel Riesco's detailed production design" and a final act "...packed with exciting, impactful action". He considered that "Extinction" "... is a zombie movie whose creators have recognised that the subgenre's tropes have been played out, and aimed for something a little different."^[11]

References

External links

• Official website (English) (Spanish)
• Extinction at the Internet Movie Database