What Still Remains (2018)

Movie Name/Year: What Still Remains (2018)

Tagline: People become their own kind of monster.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Length:  92 minutes

Rating: TV-14

Production Company: Strike the Sun Entertainment

Producers: Mitchell Gutman, Nicholas Lazo, Gregg Meller, Josh Mendoza, Stephen Parsey, Travis Swantner

Director: Josh Mendoza

Writer: Josh Mendoza

Actors: Lulu Antariksa, Colin O'Donoghue, Mimi Rogers, Dohn Norwood, Jeff Kober, Peter O'Brien, Roshon Fegan, Siena Goines

Blurb from Netflix: Struggling to survive alone post-apocalypse, a young woman is offered protection by an unknown man, but his village may not be the haven she imagines.

Cat’s Point of View:

I was pretty excited when we rolled this movie. It has been sitting in my list since it was added to Netflix. Aside from the fact that Colin O'Donoghue’s (The Rite, Storage 24, Once Upon A Time) involvement with the project piqued my interest, I’m a sucker for a post-apocalyptic tale.

I’ve been crossing my fingers that there would be more of a gripping and faster-paced story with the thriller aspect that the last movie we reviewed from this genre lacked.

While this movie wasn’t the fastest paced, it still moved forward at an acceptable rate. I don’t feel that this one requires the same ‘hey you might not want to watch this while tired’ warning.

While most of the ‘ingredients’ of the post-apocalyptic recipe are present, this film takes place slightly removed from the actual apocalyptic events. The story, as a result, is largely character-driven rather than dictated by the active crumbling of society. I like the explorations of humanity’s response to such dire circumstances. I was actually a bit surprised to learn that this is the full-length movie debut for director, Josh Mendoza (The Snow Queen, God's Country, A killer of Men).

Of course, backing him up there was a pretty amazing cast. Jeff Kober (The Hills Have Eyes II, Sons of Anarchy, Leave No Trace) and Mimi Rogers (Hope Springs, The Wedding Ringer, Captive) delivered the creep-factor within their roles that fed into the underlying tension. O’Donoghue, whom I already mentioned, is adept at projecting a disarming likability.

I think I was more surprised to learn that this film was the movie debut for Lulu Antariksa (How to Rock, Legacies, T@gged), as well. She’s certainly no stranger to acting, having appeared in quite a few small-screen series. I am looking forward to seeing what she does as she progresses in her career.

I certainly wouldn't steer anyone away from this glimpse into an apocalyptic future.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 89%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 60%

Metascore - None

Metacritic User Score – 4.0/10

IMDB Score – 4.710

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer: