Ever Since the World Ended

Post-apocalyptic stories have become a dime a dozen recently, between the remakes and rip offs its just all become common place and nothing new ever comes down the pike. Now here we have an interesting look at the end of the world shot in the format of a documentary, again nothing new but the story isn't sugar coated in any way. When the dangers are presented to the characters they are realistic and in some cases quite deadly and that draws the audience into a more believable tale than say a Mad Max or I Am Legend scenario.
Twelve years after a plague devastates the world's population, some of the handful of survivors living in San Francisco decide to strike out into the area surrounding the city to see what's out there. The story is very tight and follows along a believable and concise path that shows the different emotional states of the survivors and the problems that they must face on a daily basis. All of the acting comes off as second nature to everyone in the cast considering that they seem to be almost playing themselves in each role. One of the big parts to any post-apocalyptic story is the devastation of the cities and the land, here with it only being 12 years after the plague the decay is slow but very noticeable. The images are eerie and ghostly and the best one out of all of them is the Golden Gate Bridge, without the maintenance against the salt air we get to see the slow death of a landmark.
Shooting movies in a documentary style is starting to become old real fast, for a small film like this its not to bad but the big studios have been driving it into the ground. Even though filming from the hand held camera worked here and in "Blair Witch Project," it was a complete hindrance when it was used in "Cloverfield." This is a nice little film that should get more play time, being more realistic in the way it deals with the aftermath of the devastation ranks right up with the 80s film "The Day After."