Review: The Survivor

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where the air we breathe is toxic and fresh air is now a precious resource, The Survivor, a short film directed by Christopher Carson Emmons, is surprisingly well done and quite enjoyable.

The short follows a young boy named Billy as he travels across the wasteland with his toy robot companion to find medicine for his sick mother. The plot is as simple as can be but works given that the film is only about 12 minutes long.

Despite a cast full of unknowns, all the roles are played very well with maybe one line delivery sounding a bit cheesy. The visual aesthetic of the short brings to mind the worlds of the Fallout games or the Metro book series. That’s not a bad thing as they have some of the best and most well crafted post-apocalyptic worlds out there. The world shown here feels as it should, with elements ranging from barren areas with not a living soul to packs of roaming scavengers trying to survive.

This world actually feels real.

Another element that goes into making the world realistic is the sound, or lack thereof. There’s not a whole lot of background music and that is favorable here since all you need to hear is the silence of the wasteland with sounds of the wind mixed in to compliment. When there are music cues they’re in tense moments, such as where Billy needs to sprint from whatever horror the wasteland presents to him, and actually add to the ambiance.

The only negative elements are some dodgy digital effects towards the end of the short, though they don’t detract from the enjoyment of the product as a whole.

Overall, this is a remarkable short that can be enjoyed by anyone who’s into the whole post-apocalyptic genre, I highly recommend checking it out whenever possible. You can watch the entire thing right now on Vimeo.

For more about The Survivor, check out its Facebook page or website.
Its production company, Saga Flight is also on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.