Alone With You (Movie Review)

PLOT: Things start to get very strange while Charlie sits at home alone, waiting for her girlfriend to return from a business trip.

REVIEW: By now we’ve seen multiple movies that were made in the COVID age where people are shown staying at home and interacting with each other through computer and/or phone screens, and some of them have been quite good. And yet when you hear that Alone With You is a COVID-era movie set almost entirely in one location, centering on one character who has an occasional interaction with others through their computer and phone, you might brace yourself to see something that’s going to be lacking in some way, like maybe the low budget is going to be extremely apparent in the picture quality. But that is not the case. Although Alone With You marks the feature directorial debut of Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks, they both already have several years of credits to their names, Bennett as an actor and director of shorts, Brooks as a director of shorts and a cinematographer (among other credits). They have experience, and they used the knowledge they gained over the years to make an incredibly well-crafted film that looks great, even while showing us little more than one person in one location.

Bennett stars as that one person, Charlie, who is sitting at home alone in her apartment, waiting for her girlfriend Simone (Emma Myles of Orange Is the New Black) to get home from a business trip. It’s a special night, Charlie and Simone’s anniversary, and Charlie is looking forward to celebrating. Simone’s flight landed on time, she should be arriving any minute… But she doesn’t, and Charlie can’t reach her on the phone. The longer Simone stays out of contact, the more paranoid Charlie gets – and with reason, because flashbacks show us that this isn’t exactly the most pleasant relationship.

Romantic woes aren’t the only issue Charlie has to deal with here, otherwise the movie probably wouldn’t be categorized as horror. The more time she spends alone in the apartment, the stranger things get. It appears to be night outside the apartment windows, and yet it’s only supposed to be around two in the afternoon. None of the clocks around Charlie are working, so she can’t confirm the time for herself. The door to the apartment is jammed, so she can’t step outside. People she calls and texts for help aren’t helpful. There are odd noises from next door. And is there someone else moving around inside the apartment?

Myles is the only actor we see Bennett with in person, but she does contact a couple genre regulars through her devices. Dora Madison (Exists, Bliss, VFW, Into the Dark: All That We Destroy) is Charlie’s friend Thea, who talks to her through a few video calls, dissing Simone and getting wasted at a bar even though it’s supposedly only 2pm. The iconic Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, From Beyond, and many more) plays Charlie’s disapproving mother, performing her part in front of a webcam and upsetting our lead. Crampton’s presence is a major selling point for the film, but you shouldn’t expect to see very much of her in here. She’s only around for a few minutes.

It’s nice to see the other actors in their brief appearances, but Bennett really carries the entire movie on her shoulders and does a terrific job of it. She gave herself a very challenging role, she has to play some intense moments as it becomes clear that there’s something supernatural or psychological going on here, and she was up for the challenge. If you haven’t been aware of her acting career up to this point, she definitely establishes herself as an actor to keep an eye on. Alone With You also establishes that Bennett and Brooks are filmmakers to keep an eye on; if they can put together something so well-made with these limitations, it will be interesting to see what they can do in the future.

Even with other actors stopping by here and there, it can get kind of tiring watching one person freak out in one location for the length of a feature, so it is a relief that Bennett and Brooks made sure their movie doesn’t overstay its welcome. It has a running time of just 82 minutes, and that’s counting a few minutes of end credits – a perfect running time for something like this. The movie gives you an intriguingly strange story to watch out play out for a little over an hour, allows you to marvel at the lead’s acting performance, and then leaves you with troubling thoughts.

Dark Star Pictures is giving Alone With You a theatrical release on February 4th, with a VOD, Digital, and DVD release to follow on February 8th.

horror movie review

GOOD

7