This Is Not a Test, 2026.
Written and Directed by Adam MacDonald.
Starring Olivia Holt, Froy Gutierrez, Carson MacCormac, Luke Macfarlane, Corteon Moore, Joelle Farrow, Jeff Roop, Missy Peregrym, and Chloe Avakian.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows Sloane and four other students who take shelter in their high school during a zombie outbreak.
Although originally published in 2012 by Courtney Summers (with a definitive iteration released a couple of years ago alongside a sequel), writer/director Adam MacDonald’s cinematic adaptation of This Is Not a Test couldn’t have come at a timelier moment. Centered on a sudden zombie outbreak that follows and pushes five teenagers, some of which come from broken homes, into their high school for sanctuary, the metaphor of surviving for a future (while indirectly posing questions such as “is an apocalypse works for some of these characters?”) lands heavier considering increased concerns of climate change and the fact that younger generations might not have a future to fight for at all. The film still seems to take place in 2012 (there is a noticeable lack of modern technology and trends), but it is still effective thematically on those terms.
Olivia Holt’s Sloane is the most damaged of the group, having lived with an emotionally and physically abusive father alongside her equally tormented older sister Lily (Joelle Farrow), whose plans of running away became hastened after a particularly nasty blowup pre-apocalypse. This has left Sloane ready to take her life (with a letter already written in advance), which is coincidentally the exact moment of the outbreak. In some early comeuppance, her evil father is one of the first of many to be bitten and turned, as she escapes and quickly comes into contact with the previously mentioned teenagers (who are under adult supervision but not for long).
The elimination of all adults (save for a school faculty member who makes a brief visit) paves the way for a distinctly teenage-coded survival story, as these kids are impulsive (sometimes to an annoying fault) and don’t always make the right choices. There is Cary (Corteon Moore), a hothead appointing himself as the de facto leader, twins Grace and Chase (Chloe Avakian and Grace MacCormac), and the more levelheaded Rhys (Froy Gutierrez), all of whom contain some sort of fiction with one another. The exception here is Sloane, quiet and mostly keeping to herself, conveying everything from depression to, inevitably, a newfound sense of will to live.
Such drama here involves disagreements on what to do with a survivor, sexual and romantic entanglements, bleak psychological thoughts, and also potential mutiny. Admittedly, some of this is heightened as if conflict is being forced (the same applies for the few students with Sloane’s abusive father, who is dialed up all the way to 11 to make the point as blunt as possible), but the performance from Olivia Holt is expressive and grounded, rising above some of those weaker storytelling plot points. One also wonders whether her life at home and her relationship with Lily received more, if not equal, treatment in the novel, yet have been stripped down here for time efficiency.
It’s quieter moments work better, such as a drinking game that feels both honest while driving home that these are kids in a horrifying situation who had yet to experience a great deal of life’s beauty and aren’t emotionally prepared to deal with, let alone physically. There is also a real sense of danger, as these characters are not safe simply because they are teenagers or semi-important. When it comes to that zombie violence, the filmmakers take an aggressive whiplash approach with shaky cameras and punk music blaring over the soundtrack, often getting up close for bites and stabs with heaps of blood spraying everywhere.
This Is Not a Test is a rare case of a YA novel making it to the screen without being toned down in terms of violence, darkness, or emotionality. Sure, it still contains numerous genre clichés, but it’s committed to doing something just different enough without sanitizing itself or the zombie genre. It may still be an oversaturated genre, but it has some life and, if other recent output is any indication, much to look forward to in the future.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
