It’s hard to find anything new to say within the zombie subgenre. Not impossible—Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead, in theaters right now, is proof of that—but the versatile genre has had its deepest recesses plundered for commentary in the nearly 60 years since Tina’s dad first used it as a vehicle to talk about America’s sociopolitical issues of the day. Writer-director Adam McDonald’s This Is Not a Test doesn’t add much to the conversation, but it is nice to see a teen-oriented horror film address big topics like child abuse and suicide, even if they do get bogged down by the script’s pacing issues and fundamental lack of curiosity.
The Zombies in This Is Not a Test Move Faster Than the Story
Based on the 2012 book of the same name by Courtney Summers, This Is Not a Test follows Sloane (Olivia Holt), a teen girl contemplating ending her own life. Her older sister, her rock, has left home, leaving her at the mercy of their abusive father. Before she can go through with it, a zombie outbreak spreads like wildfire through her town, leaving her and a handful of classmates running for their lives.
When This Is Not a Test moves, it moves fast. Scenes involving the undead are often surprisingly high-octane, with the film leaning into the sprinting zombie popularized by 28 Days Later. The practical effects are also well executed, leaving the threat feeling real and immediate whenever the zombies are on screen. Unfortunately, once our heroes make it to the school and barricade the entrances, the film settles into a sluggish groove that it will struggle to get out of, especially after it runs out of flashbacks.
This Is Not a Test Has an Interesting Setting, but Underutilizes It
Part of the problem is the teens’ willingness to just lie down in the gymnasium and wait for all this to blow over. Characters will occasionally break off on their own (somewhat infuriatingly, given the danger) to listlessly wander or randomly sprint around the halls, but little attempt is made to forge makeshift weapons or gather other supplies that the large and well-stocked building likely has to offer. The teens’ relationship with school—the institution that seemingly failed to recognize Sloane’s abusive home situation—also goes largely unexplored, rendering the location little more than a shelter, stripped of its thematic potential.
That’s the biggest problem with This Is Not a Test: it’s hard to ignore the sense that there’s a better, more interesting film lingering just out of reach. The characters’ interpersonal drama simmers in the background throughout, but never boils over. The 90s setting, while adding a subtle layer of grunge, feels detached from the movie’s core themes. Was the kind of abuse, loneliness, and depression that Sloane suffers better or worse in the pre-social media age, or is it a universal truth? A visual nod to the Y2K scare raises a chuckle, but a smarter film might have asked more of its setting.
An Unexpected Arrival Gives This Is Not a Test a Midway Adrenaline Boost
This Is Not a Test’s seeming disinterest in deeply examining its themes is perhaps best exemplified by the arrival of a character who paradoxically serves as one of the film’s strongest assets. The sudden appearance of English teacher Mr. Baxter (Luke Macfarlane) around the midway point injects some much-needed intrigue and suspense into a story that is by now starting to wear. Macfarlane is wonderfully shady, switching effortlessly between creep and sniveling coward as Baxter attempts to manipulate the teens, but his performance is undercut by a quickly waved-off whiff of pedophilia around the character.
Baxter is seen creeping on Sloane before he’s caught; when the teens finally spot him, he wastes no time in making offhand references that suggest an attraction to her. But the script never probes this predatory behavior any deeper, instead shifting the focus to whether he’s infected and what to do about it. That’s a tried-and-true formula for zombie movie drama, but it’s hard to focus on after the question of pedophilia has been raised. Considering that Sloane is already an abuse survivor, it frankly feels odd to gesture vaguely at another source of harm and then immediately drop it.
There’s certainly more that could have been done with these characters and the setting, but This Is Not a Test is still a competent entry in the teen screams category. Holt and Macfarlane’s performances are strong, and the undead action is bloody good fun, but even the fast-paced zombies can’t outrun an underdeveloped script.