#Alive (2020)
★★★½ — #Alive (2020)
Here's a question I don't think enough zombie films bother to ask: what would most of us actually do if the dead started walking outside our front doors? Not the heroic version of ourselves we like to imagine, the one who'd grab a cricket bat and start bashing skulls. The honest answer. And #Alive, to its credit, comes up with something far more truthful than most entries in the genre.
The way I see it, a real zombie apocalypse would produce three types of people. There'd be the fighters and pillagers, the ones who'd immediately organise into gangs and start taking what they need. There'd be those who'd take one look at the situation and decide they'd rather not, thank you very much. And then there'd be the third group, probably the largest: the people who'd just lock themselves inside, draw the curtains, and wait. Hope it blows over. Ration the biscuits. Refresh their phones until the signal dies. #Alive is about that third group, and it makes for one of the most quietly believable takes on the genre I've come across.
Our protagonist is trapped in his apartment block as Seoul descends into chaos outside. No grand plan. No weapons cache. Just whatever food is in the kitchen, a phone with a dying battery, and a view from the window that keeps getting worse. It's a simple setup, and the film is patient with it, maybe a touch too patient for viewers who want the action front-loaded. The early stretch is deliberately slow and deliberately lonely, and that's entirely the point. Survival isn't exciting when you're just sitting there waiting to starve.
What I really appreciated is how the film handles the zombies themselves. There's a tendency in the genre to treat individual zombies as minor inconveniences, easy to pick off with a casual shove or a tap to the head. #Alive isn't having any of that. A single zombie here is a genuine, serious threat. They're not shuffling pushovers. Getting past even one of them requires real thought and real risk, which raises the stakes considerably and makes every encounter feel dangerous rather than routine. It's a small shift in approach but it changes everything about how tense the film is.
That said, I do think genre fans might find themselves slightly frustrated, and I want to be upfront about that. If you're coming in expecting wall-to-wall carnage and set pieces, the pacing is going to test your patience. The film earns its tension slowly, through isolation and dread rather than spectacle. It's closer in spirit to a survival drama that happens to have zombies than a horror-action film. That's not a criticism, it's just worth knowing going in.
It's interesting to compare this to Peninsula (2020), which I also reviewed. Peninsula goes the opposite direction entirely, leaning hard into action and scale. #Alive strips all of that away and asks what the experience of a zombie apocalypse would actually feel like for an ordinary person with no special skills and nowhere to go. One approach isn't better than the other, but #Alive's version feels considerably more honest.
There's a genuine emotional core to this film that sneaks up on you. The loneliness of those early scenes is well-observed, and when the story opens up a little and human connection enters the picture, it earns it. This isn't a film that's just using the zombie premise as wallpaper. It's actually interested in what isolation does to a person, and what the prospect of another human being is worth when the world outside has gone to pieces.
Four stars. Arguably one of the most realistic zombie films I've watched, and I mean that as a genuine compliment. Just don't go in expecting a ride. This one asks you to sit with the discomfort, and it's better for it.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2020 | Watched: 2025-05-17
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from South Korea: Memories of Murder (2003) · Peninsula (2020) · Lost in Starlight (2025) · The Handmaiden (2016)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
