The Clearing

Almost this entire film takes place inside and immediately outside a trailer, in a forest, hence the title. A man in his thirties and his daughter, who is around twelve years old, go camping. In a flashback, it is established that: 1)He is resourceful while 2)She is not. She is more interested a in computer games and ill-equipped to be on her own. But, when the zombies strike, the daughter runs away, and he is stuck at the campsite, completely surrounded. How will he escape? Is she alive or dead? Will the boy-scout tricks he taught her before they were set-upon come in handy? Of course, these are the fast- zombies-type (the running dead) so he can't just jump over them and sprint away. To complicate things, he makes some crucial mistakes and a non-zombie- of dubious moral character- is introduced into the story about halfway through. The attacks are punctuated by pulse-pounding but generic music and some scenes, at night, are too darkly lit. It is hard to come up with a new idea in this sub-genre, so this movie is what it is. 5/10 stars.

The Clearing has some great small father-daughter relationship moments. Those personal moments are important for a zombie film, to balance out the gore and violence that zombie films promise to deliver, and this one delivers. This is very low budget, but zombie films can get away with that, and since the majority of the film takes place in one location, it works, to be honest. Make up your own mind about the Clearing; if you like zombie films like I do, I think you'll like it. It fits the genre well.

Intense zombie horror flick. Great usage of the enclosed space, which hits home even more during the time of Covid. Tension is constant throughout the movie, with well shot and fast-paced action sequences. But it is the relationship between the dad and the daughter that keeps it grounded and relatable. Fans of the genre will love it.

No story, no plot. Did I mention there is no story? Also, nothing that happens in the movie is believable. Unless a dude single-handedly fighting an entire zombie army on his lonesome with essentially his bare hands, while making stupid decisions and not being logical is something you'd consider to be a story. Somehow dude doesn't ever get bitten, despite the fact that these acrobatic zombies can jump, climb ladders, and magically get on top of things. -- like speeding cars. Except when they can't. They are very quick on their feet, as they can almost out-run a truck, and while they feel the need to try to rip said dude apart, they don't want to eat him. Whut? The daughter fared better. She was able to out-run the zombie horde a couple of times, even without food or water. And though she had no real wilderness experience, she managed to find her way clear to the top of a mountain where she lit a fire for a smoke signal. Because, even though they weren't expecting the zombie apocalypse and she'd just left the camper presumably to use the toilet, she happened to have matches on her while she was sleeping. Presumably in the coat she lost along the way. Can you say plot holes? Here's another plot hole -- when dude tries to call his daughter on her cell phone, it rings in the camper. So he has two working cell phones, and obviously is getting a signal or the daughter's phone wouldn't have rung... but at no point does he try to use one to call his wife or 911, or anyone at all for help. Instead, he fiddles pointlessly with a HAM radio. The film doesn't bother explaining where the zombies came from, what happened to the wife, or how they're going to get down the mountain to safety (is it even safe back in civilization?) without a vehicle, food, water, or a story line. Save yourself the aggravation and watch something else.