For the past 20 years, Jake (Drew Van Acker, Titans, Pretty Little Liars) and his father Troy (Stephen Moyer, True Blood) have been living an isolated life off the grid. When Jake was just a young boy, he and his father fled north, building a cabin in the middle of nowhere, where the two of them could live off the land, away from anyone else. Over the years, Troy has constantly warned his son of the dangers of the outside world, telling him that the only other people who survived the devastation of World War III were marauders who want to do them harm. Troy taught his son how to hunt and gather food, set traps to protect their home, and to never trust outsiders. Despite all this, Jake has always enjoyed his life with his father—it is really the only way of life he’s ever known. However, over the years, he’s found magazines and other toys and trinkets in the belongings of the trespassers his father has killed and buried in the woods. While Jake keeps these items hidden from his father, he can’t help but have a growing curiosity about things like religion and the outside world.

One day Troy is injured during an altercation with a stranger who made his way onto the property. He is in desperate need of antibiotics, but their supply has been depleted. Troy’s only choice is to allow Jake to venture off on his own for the very first time, to steal the supplies from an old farmhouse miles away. He gives his son strict instructions to not let any outsiders see him, and if he does see any other man, woman or child, he is to shoot them on sight. However, once Troy makes his way to the farmhouse, he sees the beautiful and seemingly-harmless Henrietta (Alicia Silverstone). She resembles the woman on the cover of one of the news magazines he’s been hiding from his father. Jake can’t bring himself to follow Troy’s orders, and starts to question if everything his father has told him about the outsiders is actually true. As Jake finds new excuses to sneak away to learn more about this outsider, it isn’t long before the truth about a darker past starts to come out, and Troy’s house of lies starts crashing down. But Troy is determined to keep the past buried, which puts Jake, Henrietta and anyone else the come in contact with in danger.

Last Survivors starts off strong as this post-apocalyptic survival movie. It establishes this interesting dynamic between a father and son who have this well-oiled system of surviving the cold and living off the land in this seemingly post-apocalyptic world. It’s obvious they’ve been doing this for a while as they effortlessly hunt, fish, and collect the supplies they’ll need to make it through the winter. However, after living an isolated life for so long, Jake has naturally become curious as to what else is out there, but Troy is extremely protective and not ready to let his son wander off on his own. When an outsider approaches their land, he would rather Jake stay inside where he’s safe, while he takes care of things. We don’t really know what exactly happened during these wars that Jake refers to in the opening narration, but we do get some distorted flashbacks of a panicked Troy and Jake rushing to get away to start their new life far away from civilization. Once the outsider arrives, the film becomes more of a thriller as the father and son try to fend off the attacker, and Jake heads out on his mission into the dangerous unknown, sneaking into the farm house to gather the supplies he needs. Both Stephen Moyer and Drew Van Acker are quite good in these roles. Moyer is the stern but caring father, who may or may not be hiding something sinister. And Van Acker plays the naïve and inexperienced son, with the social awkwardness of a teenager due to his sheltered upbringing. Van Acker also seems to enjoy baring his bottom for the camera, which happens several times throughout the film.

However, once Jake comes in contact with Henrietta, the film goes off on a but of a diversion, becoming part love story, part mystery. It is this that didn’t quite work for me. While I enjoy Alicia Silverstone, and don’t have any issues with her performance, the character of Henrietta and her interactions with Jake just feel completely off. She is a woman living all alone in an old farmhouse when a strange man with a rifle shows up. One would think her initial reaction would be to scream, but no, instead she just calmly offers to let him use her shower and make him dinner. So Jake just puts his gun against the wall as he strips down and showers, leaving his weapon completely unattended. While the connection and attraction that forms between these two characters feels somewhat believable (and there is one particularly steamy scene), this is quickly derailed and somewhat negated as the film starts delving into Henrietta’s complicated past and current situation. And Henrietta soon becomes a bit of an amateur Nancy Drew, investigating and trying to put the pieces together of what’s going on with Jake and his Father. The film does eventually return to being a thriller and finishes out with a somewhat satisfying ending, but it just felt like it veered off course for too long in the middle, getting bogged down by Henrietta’s past, which isn’t really explained well enough and took away from the tension and momentum that had been building.

Vertical Entertainment has only released Last Survivors on DVD and Digital, so if you want to watch it in HD, you’ll need to go with the digital release. The DVD is definitely lacking the detail and sharpness of your typical Blu-ray. While close-ups generally look good, wider shots are missing a lot of the clarity that is usually found in an HD release. The audio track, on the other hand, is solid. Dialogue is clear throughout, and the track makes nice use of the surround channel to add a more immersive ambiance, such as when the men are out in a blustery storm.

The DVD release comes packed in standard DVD keepcase with a carboard slipcover. There is no bonus material or digital copy included.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:38:34)

DVD:
• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Stereo Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

This release contains no bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

Last Survivors starts off as a strong post-apocalyptic survival tale, but then morphs into more of a thriller and mystery/love story in the middle. I enjoyed the movie overall—the cast is great and the film finishes out strong—but the story gets a bit too bogged down in the middle with this odd and complicated backstory for Alicia Silverstone’s character that is never fully explained. In general, the production value is good, but the picture quality of the SD DVD release doesn’t do the film justice. I think the movie is worth a look for fans of the genre or cast, but a rental may be in order. I would suggest those interested go for the HD digital release instead of the SD disc for a better video presentation.