Reviewed by Mike Ferraro

It is the end of the world, yet again, and a family must escape their city life and break for the country. Clearly this is a storyline that will never stop in the world of cinema, so shall we not just embrace it as an audience? Unfortunately for us, this film does indeed tackle many themes and scenarios as many other stories have. Only it doesn’t accomplish the missions of being fresh or compelling as much as the filmmakers would have hoped.

The Collapsed follows the Weaver family as they try their best to survive an apocalypse of unknown origin. They do their best to avoid other survivors, who have since turned into thieves, rapists, and cannibals. After a run-in at an abandoned gas station, the four of them head to the forest for shelter, and it is about here when all is not as it seems.

Writer and director Justin McConnell seems to interesting on finally getting to the inevitable twist at the end, that he leaves out some key cathartic moments. As the family starts dwindling down in numbers, the surviving group is given not a moment to really care about their lost love ones.

It really takes you out of the picture when you become frustrated at the lack of emotion from anyone. When you come back from a journey, expected two of your family members to be waiting for you safe and sound, but you show up and their dead, you half expect to feel something. These characters just whisk it off like another day in the office. Could they simply be used to all this death? Probably, but it has to hit you when it is so close to home.

Could the acting work by the principle cast be to blame here? Some of these performances aren’t very convincing, and perhaps this is why there seems to be no emotional response to such a horrific event. But you never really get a sense that this was part of the screenplay in the first place.

Despite many of the film’s shortcomings, Anchor Bay spared no expense towards extra features. The DVD includes two commentary tracks (director and producer, and actor), a music video for Rob Kleiner’s Devil in Disguise, and some weblinks to unlock even more content (like a soundtrack download and a making-of feature).

It would be nice to have given such attention to a film worth sitting through again.