Through the Ashes (2019)

Through the Ashes: Directed by Michael Fredianelli. With Keely Dervin, Joseph Camilleri, Daniel Edward Miller, Deidre Rose. After a vicious man-made fire, a woman looks for her family amongst the survivors in a post-apocalyptic future.

“Some weak performances in key roles severely hamper this low budget post apocalpytic film which follows in the footsteps of THE ROAD in many areas including unrelentingly bleak overall atmosphere. The other big setback here is that the story and script spell things out a little too much in some areas and not enough in others. The protagonist apparently rides out the apocalypse in an underground bunker and emerges to find civil order completely wiped away… by the very same gang of criminals who visited her house just before the whole country fell apart? When did they have time to do all this?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe really needed some kind of news report or some other way of communicating what happened to society other than just getting it fed to us by the first character the protagonist runs into. Unfortunately the budget canu0026#39;t quite convince us that society fell apart the way that he explains it either. We see some very convincing charred ruins at the start of the movie but most of the rest of the film shows things largely as u0026quot;business as usualu0026quot; if you look to the background and while the irradiated survivors often sport filthy make-up, their clothes seem oddly clean. A more interesting (and populated) realization for the bad guysu0026#39; fortress, more emotional investment in some characters prior to their deaths, and more depravity on the part of the villains would have gone a long way.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a shame things arenu0026#39;t made narratively more engaging because a few of the action sequences (including some shootouts and a car chase) later in the film work surprisingly well. Thereu0026#39;s even a scene where a woman climbs into an anti-aircraft gun and totally shreds an oncoming car. Also the young actress who plays the estranged daughter puts in a very spirited performance. Her character makes some pretty bizarre decisions but the actress comes across believable nonetheless. I also have to give props to the composer for producing some excellently 80u0026#39;s synth wave tracks to breath some life into the proceedings.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWorth checking out of post-nuke completists fresh out of Wasteland Weekend.”