Quick Review: This Is Not A Test (2026) Film Review

A group of high school students takes refuge in their school during a zombie apocalypse, forcing them to deal with their personal issues alongside the undead threat.

This Is Not A Test is directed by Adam MacDonald director of Backcountry (2014), Pyewacket (2017) and Out Come the Wolves (2023).

There really is not a whole lot to say here, This Is Not A Test is basically if you took any random zombie movie and put it in the young adult book adaption genre. There is definitely some positives here but a majority of the movie is bit too dull and does not really leave an impact on the viewer.

The cast is not too bad here however the stand out by a mile is Olivia Holt, she is given the most to work with and actually does have some genuine character moments especially during the movie’s opening. The dialogue definitely has young adult adaption DNA here, there are hints of emotional moments that admittedly do have promise. But none of it builds into anything particularly memorable.

The movie’s biggest problem here is it plays incredibly safe and does not really do anything to help it stand out from a very crowded genre, not every single movie needs to stand out but there just is not any sort of identity here. It’s nice that we get a ton of dialogue between the characters but when said dialogue is dull and not particularly interesting that becomes an issue.

You could do a lot worse than This Is Not A Test but you can easily do so much better.

This Is Not A Test is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

We Bury The Dead (2026) Film Review

After a catastrophic military disaster, the dead don’t just rise – they hunt. Ava searches for her missing husband, but what she finds is far more terrifying.

We Bury The Dead is directed by Zak Hilditch director of These Final Hours (2013), 1922 (2017), Rattlesnake (2019) and a few others.

We Bury The Dead attempts to go for the same sort of atmosphere that 28 Days Later (2002) has, at times it works but other times it definitely feels like a bit of a slog. However the film is decent enough and the story has just the right amount of power in its script to tell an interesting story.

Daisy Ridley is by and large the best part of the film, she gives this very human performance that captures the film’s sense of dread. Her interactions with the rest of the cast has enough firepower to leave impressions on the viewer, there is also this sense of loneliness in Ridley’s tone that works when given the context of the film.

In fact the whole film has this sense of loneliness which I always appreciate when a film does include that sort of theme, the cinematography compliments this well with tons of striking shots that immediately put the viewer into the film’s world. Cinematographer Steve Annis does a wonderful job of making the film’s world that much more sharper and real, this could have easily been another case of a generic zombie affair (in some ways it is but I’ll get to that.)

The score is haunting, the uses of Lascia Ch’io Pianga are very well done and expand the atmosphere, what’s also established early on is the film trades action for atmosphere which ultimately leads to be a positive for the experience. During the more quiet moments, the score captures the sense of dread surrounding the characters and builds to a decently well done climax.

The film does fall in a bit of cliche territory towards the end with some very typical zombie movie elements. However the story revolving around loss and wanting closure does make up for it and leads to a sad yet interesting experience.

Overall We Bury The Dead is a decent little movie, this is probably something you won’t ever go back to and does not stand out all that much from a crowded genre. However I do think it’s worth a look simply due to Ridley’s performance and the atmosphere.

We Bury The Dead is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Unhuman is a teen zombie movie not worth sinking your teeth into.

A secondary school field trip turns into a living nightmare as seven misfit students band together to fight the undead.

Unhuman is the fifth EPIX and Blumhouse collaboration movie (I hadn’t realized that Torn Hearts was from EPIX or Blumhouse meaning that is by far the best one and so far the only good one). Unhuman is a teen zombie movie directed by Marcus Dunstan (directed The Collector and The Collection) and it’s a nothing special about it one, the performances are fine enough the best one being from Brianne Tju who actually did a decent job. There’s some nice kills here and there but it’s not anything you haven’t seen before, the third act is a complete switch and goes off the rails which I’m all for movies doing but it has to at least make some sort of sense. Unfortunately for this movie it doesn’t especially with the editing that becomes way too over stylized and a lot of surface level writing that quickly makes the viewer lose interest. As a whole it’s a very below average zombie movie that makes some very strange decisions (the third act) that has a very rough first act, a decently fun second act and a nonsensical third act.

Unhuman is available on all VOD Platforms.

4/10 D+

Little Monsters (2019)

A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies. Little Monsters is an interesting little movie, It’s one of the most heartwarming zombie movies I’ve ever seen (something I thought I would never say) what isn’t heartwarming is the first 20 minutes of this movie, which I did not like at all, I really thought this was a terrible sign and the movie was going to disappoint. Luckily that wasn’t the case because after that the movie gets quite good. Lupita Nyong’o is absolutely fantastic in this movie and is easily the best thing about this movie, Alexander England also did a fairly good job after the first 20 minutes you start to like his character, which is quite honestly something that hasn’t happened for me in awhile. I do wish there was a bit more interaction with the zombies but it’s forgivable because I completely understand what this movie was going for, and for the most part it worked. The writing is pretty solid, it’s not as effective as One Cut Of The Dead or Train To Busan but it’s really solid stuff that actually does have some humor in it that works very well. Overall a very strong zombie film that I would definitely recommend!!
8/10 B+