Two of Us (2020)
Let me be honest with you: I sat through eighty-odd minutes of what is apparently also known as Two of Us, but I watched it under its alternative title, Paradise Z, and I had absolutely no idea what I was in for. What I was hoping for was a zombie survival thriller with some genuine tension and dread. What I got was something so bafflingly misconceived that I'm still not entirely sure how it exists.
Right, let's start with the one genuine positive, because there is one. Director Wych Kaosayananda, whose name I had never encountered before this and won't be rushing to seek out again, has clearly got a cinematographer worth their salt. The film looks gorgeous. We're talking lush, crystal-clear water, beautiful natural surroundings, soft lighting, lovely compositions. If you paused it at any given moment and framed it on your wall, you'd have a very pleasing holiday photograph. That's not nothing. I'll take it.
The problem, and it's a catastrophic one, is what happens when you press play.
For roughly the first sixty minutes of this film, absolutely nothing happens. I mean that almost literally. Two lead actresses, both undeniably attractive, lounge by the pool, engage in a slowly developing romance and exchange the occasional bit of dialogue before returning to silence. I clocked stretches of ten minutes or more with no dialogue whatsoever and no zombie threat in sight. Now, I can appreciate a director with the confidence to let a story breathe. Slow cinema is a legitimate form. Building intimacy in a post-apocalyptic setting is actually quite an interesting idea on paper. But the execution here isn't slow-burn, it's inert. It's a holiday video. A very pretty, occasionally awkward holiday video. The zombie apocalypse feels less like a backdrop and more like something someone mentioned in the pitch meeting and then completely forgot about.
Then, with about twenty minutes left on the clock, the film suddenly remembers what genre it signed up for. The undead arrive. And here's the thing: the practical makeup and gore effects are actually decent. There's clearly some craft gone into the zombie design, and for a moment I thought the film might recover some ground. It does not. The horror sequences are directed with all the tension of a school play. The acting collapses entirely under pressure, the story makes no sense whatsoever, and there is not a single moment of genuine fright or suspense to be found. It reminded me, and not in a good way, of the kind of chaotic incompetence you'd find in a Uwe Boll production, where the technical ambition of a few effects shots is completely let down by everything surrounding them.
I think about a film like Evil Dead Rise (2023), which understands that horror lives and dies on atmosphere, escalation and commitment from everyone involved. Paradise Z has none of those things. It has pretty pictures and then noise. There's no middle ground, no craft in the storytelling, no sense that anyone on set agreed what kind of film they were making.
One star out of five, and I mean that generously. The single star exists because those visual compositions are genuinely fine, and because the zombie effects in the final act show at least a flicker of effort. But as a horror film it's essentially absent, as a romance it's tedious, and as a genre-blending experiment it's a spectacular misfire. Kaosayananda set out to do something bold and ended up making something that works as neither of the things it's trying to be.
It's a beautiful, well-shot failure, and I won't be going back to it. I also won't be in any hurry to explore the rest of his filmography. Some directors you discover and think, right, I need to watch everything they've ever made. This was not that experience.
Rating: ★ | Year: 2020 | Watched: 2026-07-02
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: MovieSphere+ Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
