Train to Busan

I came into this with two thoughts. 1) This has a sterling reputation, I hope it can live up to it. 2) I'm sick of zombies. Not only did this end up living up to its reputation, it made zombies feel fresh and interesting again, by doing four things. 1) It did not use a zombie apocalypse as a backdrop to explore how humans were the real monsters all along. 2) It most of the movie into a claustrophobic setting. 3) It changed some of the zombie "rules". 4) It gave us characters we grew to care about. I think 2 and 4 are the big ones here. I cannot express how much more tense it felt seeing the people on that train, divided into different cars, with zombies in between. The quick-change of the zombie infection, their relentless speed, but almost total dependency on sight, was another nice touch. It allowed for some greats of scenes building tension through quiet moments in the dark, which are a nice counter-balance for when this movie white-knuckles it and gives you all the high-octane terror you can handle. None of it would matter if we didn't care about the characters, but we do. You feel the bonds between couples. You feel their fear and paranoia and distrust. You will come to care about the characters, and you will feel torn apart when some of them die. This movie is not afraid to kill people, and it's not afraid to make you feel like absolute dirt, so don't come here looking for a Hollywood ending. This movie is bleak. Not hopeless, but not sunshine and flowers. If there are any weak spots, I'd say it's in two spots. First, the daughter is a little TOO wise, and it comes off as a bit cliche. Not enough to drag it down, and she will pull at your heartstrings, but there's just a few lines where you can sense the script is having her say something because it needs that point to come across, not because it's what a nine-year old would say at that moment. And second is the payoff for the cowardly jerk who serves as this movie's human antagonist. All throughout the movie, he finds new ways to be a bigger and bigger douchebag, and you want to see this schmuck get his. By the final 15 minutes or so, you're ready for this guy to be torn apart limb from limb, and ... that doesn't happen. He does get a matter of comeuppance, but it's like if Vader died of a staph infection at the end of Jedi. It's just not satisfying. Again, doesn't ruin the movie, but I needed a little more, and didn't get it. Still, this movie is wall-to-wall awesome. If you think zombies are played out, this brings it right back to fresh. Don't hesitate to watch. Hooptober 2021 movie #15/24.