''Extinction'' (formerly known as ''Welcome to Harmony'') is a 2015

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

directed by

Miguel Ángel Vivas Miguel Ángel Vivas (born 1974) is a Spanish director, and screenwriter. He has directed films such as ''Extinction'' (2015), and ''Your Son'' (2018). Filmography As director * '' Asedio'' (2023) * '' Desaparecidos'' (2020) * ''Unauthorized ...

who also co-wrote the screenplay with

Alberto Marini Alberto "Beto" Marini (born 1972) is an Italian screenwriter and producer based in Spain. Biography Alberto Marini was born in Turin in 1972. He earned a degree in law, with specialisation in audiovisual law. Based in Barcelona since 1999, he ...

from the novel ''Y pese a todo'' by Juan de Dios Garduño. The film stars

Matthew Fox Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Charlie Salinger on '' Party of Five'' (1994–2000) and Jack Shephard on the drama series '' Lost'' (2004–2010), the latter of which earned h ...

Jeffrey Donovan Jeffrey Donovan (born May 11, 1968) is an American actor. He played Michael Westen in the television series ''Burn Notice'', and appeared in films such as '' Hitch'', '' Believe in Me'', ''Changeling'', and '' Come Early Morning''. He played R ...

and

Quinn McColgan Quinn McColgan (born January 31, 2002) is an American actress from Delaware, who has appeared in five feature films, four TV shows, one TV movie and a short. Her breakthrough role was in the TV mini-series ''Mildred Pierce'' as Ray Pierce (the ...

. In a post-apocalypse future, three survivors confront issues from their past, as well as a race of crazed zombies. The film was released on July 31, 2015 in the United States. It is a joint-production between Spain, Hungary and France.

Plot

After a virus turns people into zombies, a small group of survivors seek refuge in a snow-covered town, believing the virus and all of its monstrous creations had died out. But they only discover the infected had adapted to the environment change, for worse. The story starts out with survivors on two buses trying to make it to a safe zone. The first bus is attacked by the infected. The people in the second bus, including the main characters (Jack, Patrick, Emma and baby Lu) try to escape. While hiding, Emma is attacked by an infected and bitten. 9 years later, Jack and Patrick are living separately in houses next door, divided by a fence. Emma has died and Lu, now 9, is living with Jack, who she calls father. It is revealed that Patrick is her biological father. She was taken away by Jack because Patrick became an alcoholic and when Emma was attacked and killed, Patrick didn't save her. Now, Patrick and Jack do not talk to each other, and Lu is forbidden to leave the premises. However, she bonds with Patrick's dog between the fence. A few days later, Patrick and his dog come across a half eaten fox. He follows the trail and sees an infected. He tries to get away but hits a fallen tree. The infected looks down on him but doesn't see him. Instead its ears start moving and it is attracted to gun shots coming from Jack's home. Patrick heads home, firing off shots to warn Jack. However, he attracts the infected and it attacks him. He is bitten on the neck but his dog saves him when Jack hesitates to shoot. Lu is angry that Jack didn't do anything to help. That night Lu sneaks out of the house to put flowers on the dog's grave. She is attacked by the infected but Jack gets to her in time. He is severely injured by the zombie. Patrick saves Jack and Lu, and ties up the infected. They learn that even though they were technically infected, they are immune to the disease because none of them turned. They also learn that the infected have evolved: they can't see but they have enhanced hearing. The next day, Lu wants to invite Patrick over for dinner and Jack agrees. Patrick talks on the radio and someone responds, prompting Patrick to want to leave. Jack asks if they can join him and he agrees. They go to the warehouse to pick up supplies and Lu sees a woman in the distance. The guys take her home, realizing she is pregnant. She tells them that her group had heard Patrick on the radio and were on their way. However, their convoy got attacked. At this moment she hears the howling of an infected they had caught. She shoots it with Patrick's gun and tells them the howling is how they call each other. They start to board up the house when they hear howling in the distance. Many infected come to the house and start to attack. Fighting ensues; the woman plays music loudly, causing the infected to stop attacking and cover their ears. But the generator starts to run out of gas, causing the music to turn down. Patrick makes a decision to sacrifice himself by luring the infected away from the house. Lighting a flare, he hollers to the infected and they follow. Jack, Lu and the woman drive away as Patrick blows up himself and the infected. Jack, Lu and the woman leave town and watch the sunrise.

Cast

as Patrick *

as Jack *

as Lu *

Valeria Vereau Valeria Vereau (born 1986) is a Peruvian-born Spanish actress and producer. Biography Vereau was born in Lima, Perú on 9 December 1986. She is the youngest of three siblings. Her mother who is Peruvian, is of English and Spanish-French desc ...

as Emma *

Alex Hafner Alex Hafner is an international film and television actor. Alex was born in Vienna, Austria. His Spanish father is an engineer, his Italian mother an economist. He also has a sister, Sofía. During his childhood his family moved between Madrid, V ...

as Lewinsky *

Clara Lago Clara Lago Grau (born 6 March 1990) is a Spanish actress. Career Clara Lago Grau was born on 6 March 1990 in Torrelodones, Community of Madrid. Lago made her film debut at the age of 9 with the Spanish film ''Terca Vida'' (2000) (she had prev ...

as Anne

Production

The film was first announced on December 20, 2013 as an Ombra Films production, with Jaume Collet-Sera and

as producers. Filming began in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and the first images were released on February 21, 2014.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has a 20% rating, with an average score of 5.1/10, based on ten critics.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gives the film a 46 out of 100, sampled from four critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In the New York Daily News review of "Extinction" by Katherine Pushkar entitled "Zombies on Ice" the critic commented on the relationship between Jack and Patrick: "...The movie spends nearly an hour - too long - establishing the bad blood". Considering the zombies, Pushkar noted: "The zombies have evolved. They can now survive cold but they no longer infect people via flesh wounds. Also, they are blind. These are only problems if you're a zombie purist. At least they still want to tear people apart, and they remain plenty scary. If only they had more screen time". Pushkar concluded: "The films core problems: too little zombie and too much plot. The upside though is McColgan as Lu...clearly someone to watch".

Frank Scheck Frank Scheck is an American film critic. He is best known for his reviews in the ''New York Post'' and ''The Hollywood Reporter''. He formerly edited ''STAGES Magazine'' and worked as a theater critic for the ''Christian Science Monitor Ch ...

in "The Extinction Review" for

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

argued: "If there's one reason to hope for an actual zombie apocalypse, it's that there will at least be no more zombie apocalypse movies." In his "Extinction Review" for

Fangoria ''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr. The magazine was originally released i ...

Michael Gingold Michael Gingold is an American journalist, screenwriter, and former editor-in-chief of ''Fangoria'' magazine. Career In his teen years, young horror fan Michael Gingold wrote and self-published the photocopied horror-review fanzine ''Scareaphanal ...

commented: "As movies about flesh-hungry ghouls have overwhelmed the horror scene...it's refreshing when the occasional film puts the people at a premium. Such a movie is Extinction." He added: "...Vivas wrangles the drama into a quietly gripping survival saga, he and his leads fleshing out the trio of protagonists to empathetic effect." He praised "Pedro De Gaspar and Miguel Riesco's detailed production design" and a final act "...packed with exciting, impactful action". He considered that "Extinction... sa zombie movie whose creators have recognized that the subgenre's

tropes Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

have been played out, and aimed for something a little different."

References

External links