The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Have you ever watched a movie, and felt the actual need to re-arrange the order of its events? Have you ever wanted to place certain scenes here, and cut out a few scenes there? Well, that’s exactly what Hostile did to us; the film’s constant back and forth between the past and the present, left us confused and dizzy. Hostile is a horror/thriller, set in a post-apocalyptic world. The film revolves around lone survivor Juliette (Brittany Ashworth), who is stranded in the middle of the desert. Every night, Juliette has to fight for her life against a zombie-like creature, until the crack of dawn. 

The main issue with this film is its structure. While the film offers information about Juliette’s former life, and details surrounding her relationship with her lover (Gregory Fitoussi) by means of several flashbacks, the film fails to provide any information regarding the origins of this zombie-like creature in particular, and/or the origins of the post-apocalyptic world in general. Indeed, the flashbacks only took away from the severity of Juliette’s current situation, and the come backs only took away from the sentimentality of her romantic memories. It felt like two could-have-been-good movies came together and formed one mediocre film called Hostile. That being said, the flashbacks make for a far more interesting narrative than the present because they provided room for depth, character development, and sentimentality.

Speaking of Juliette’s present situation, brings us to a second issue with this film: the zombie-like creature that Juliette is battling does not fully appear until the film’s second half. Yes, Juliette faces other obstacles that need to be showcased, but the creature is -at the end of the day- Juliette’s primary obstacle. Thus, the film’s first half is quite uneventful, a bit disappointing, and a tad boring. 

As per the acting, Brittany Ashworth actually did a decent job, especially in the flashback scenes in which she portrayed a strong and lovable character. Ashworth’s performance, however, was a bit over the top in scenes that featured her character, Juliette, experiencing physical pain. Gregory Fitoussi was mediocre, relying more on his good looks than his acting skills. Perhaps, the only outstandingly great thing about this film is the lighting, shooting, and framing of all its scenes. 

To sum up, the film is home to a just little bit of horror, not that much thrill, some romance, but definitely too many flashbacks.