THE DECLINE : Monday 20th April 2020

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'The Decline' which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Monday 20th April.

'THE DECLINE' is a Canadian thriller drama offering from first time feature film Director Patrice Laliberte, whose previous short films have included the 2015 TIFF award winning 'Overpass' for Best Canadian Short Film. This is the first Quebec film produced as a Netflix Original and saw its theatrical release on 28th February at the Rendez-vous Quebec Cinema Festival, and landed on Netflix later in March. The film is overdubbed into English, with the original cast dubbing their own dialogue so ensuring that the English accent of French speaking Quebecers would be more authentically represented.

The film opens up with a man carrying a torch through various rooms in a house late at night. He wakes his daughter, saying its time to go. She complies, meets him at the foot of the stairs, puts on a coat and a back pack and meets her mother. They go to the garage, torches extinguished, open the door and drive the family SUV out into the night, timing their effort as they do so. They pull up beside a harbour and congratulate each other saying that they were quicker by two minutes than last time. The next day the family watch an online video presented by a middle aged man named Alain (Real Bosse), a survivalist giving helpful hints from his own remote self contained and self sufficient camp in remotest isolated Canada on how to survive a downturn in civilisation as we know it - either through a pandemic, social unrest, economic collapse, all out war, irreversible climate change or some other more than plausible reason.

A few days later we see the husband and father Antoine (Guillaume Laurin) driving alone across snow swept frozen landscapes, with a telephone voiceover from Alain, saying that he has had a last minute cancellation at his multi-day survivalist training camp, and he would like Antoine to attend if he is so inclined. Whilst the pair have not met before, a pre-existing kindred relationship exists, presumably through prior telephone or email contact, and Antoine's due regard for the survivalist messages that Alain is advocating. Upon arrival Antione is greeted by Alain, and the pair travel on a snowmobile with trailer to the camp - a journey which takes some time. Antoine is blindfolded so as not to give away Alain's camp location, housed on his own personal 500 acre plot of wilderness.

Arriving at the camp Antoine is introduced to the other five survivalism enthusiasts all there for the same training camp - there is Rachel (Marie-Evelyne Lessard), Sebastien (Guillaume Cyr), Anna (Marilyn Castonguay), Francois (Marc-Andre Grondin) and David (Marc Beaupre). On a tour of the camp, they learn that they'll eat in Alain's very comfortable cabin, they'll sleep together in a large tent, and that Alain has solar panels, batteries, a generator, a greenhouse, a chicken coup, seasoned wood for burning, and the complete wherewithal to live as normal a life, and defend himself, come the apocalypse (whatever form that may take!). After dinner they sit around the camp fire until curfew at 9:30pm, discussing the reasons for them being there, drinking beers and wrestling each other with Rachel gaining the upper hand in all cases due to her being ex-military.

Alain takes his students on a cross country run, trains his students in handgun and rifle drills, snaring and field dressing small animals and planting seedlings in his greenhouse. One evening over dinner he tells his students that one day, when society collapses (and it is sooner that you may think!), he can live in his camp and supply his own needs to completely sustain himself indefinitely. He also tells them about his own survivalist philosophy, and later alone with Antoine he invites him to consider establishing himself and his family at the camp at some future date - such is the strength of their shared beliefs.

The next day Alain teaches the students how to make pipe bombs, saying that if a large contingent of machete wielding migrants try to raid his camp, then rifles will be hardly sufficient, but a pipe bomb can take out twenty at a time - much more effective! When the students have made their pipe bombs, they test a number of them in controlled explosions. At the end of the day Alain and Sebastien go off to prepare dinner, leaving the others to pack away everything from the day to its rightful place. In so doing Francois is packing away a box and it explodes, ripping his chest, arms and face to shreds. He dies a short time afterwards of his wounds. 

Gathered around the table with Francois' body under a blood soaked sheet, most of the students want to call the Police and report the accident. Alain and David have different ideas, saying they will all be charged with domestic terrorism or manslaughter, imprisoned, and Alain will lose his survival camp. Alain asks that they all sleep on it and that they'll reassess in the morning. Later that evening Alain burns the dead body with petrol on the camp fire, which naturally draws the attention of the others. All of the remaining students, except for David try to flee the camp. Alain shoots Anna in the leg as a warning to the others, who by now have made a dash for it through the trees and booby trapped snow covered trails late at night. Sebastien is quickly dispensed with when he is garrotted by a noose snare trap. In the meantime, Alain has dragged Anna into the kitchen kicking and screaming, and ties a tourniquet around her leg in an attempt to stem her blood loss, and cable ties her hands to the kitchen table.

Antoine and Rachel continue their journey treading very gingerly through the undergrowth, eventually coming upon Alain's back-up bunker containing arms, foodstuffs and essential supplies. They make off with a small cache of supplies including a hand gun and a semi-automatic assault rifle just before Alain and David arrive.

The next day, crossing a frozen lake on foot, Rachel falls in when the ice gives way under her feet. Antoine tries frantically to crack the ice as Rachel is swept downstream, managing to do so just in time. She has lost the assault rifle, but is safe, albeit cold to the bone. After resting up the night and huddling together under a space blanket, the pair continue their journey, eventually making it back to where their cars are parked. Getting into Antoine's SUV, the pair are ambushed by David in a hail of assault rifle bullets, killing Antoine. Rachel, using her hand gun has a shoot out with David, injuring him with a leg wound and then beating him to death with repeated blows to his head with the butt of her pistol. Rachel heads back to the camp with David's assault rifle. Alain arrives sometime later to see both David's and Antoine's lifeless bloodsoaked bodies.

Arriving at the cabin, Rachel sees the body of Anna who was cable tied to the kitchen bench and has subsequently died from her wounds. She sets fire to the greenhouse by dousing it in petrol, and then goes to an upper floor of the cabin to lie in wait for Alain. When Alain approaches on his snowmobil, she fires at him, pinning him down. He uses smoke grenades to mask his location and gets to the cabin. She disarms him when he enters the upper room, and they have a brutal close quarter hand-to-hand fight. Finally, even though she is injured, she incapacitates him, by repeatedly stabbing him in the leg and breaking his arm (skills she learned in her earlier military life, having seen active duty). Rachel loads the wounded Alain onto a sled attached to the snowmobile and drives out of the camp, as he pleads with her to just leave him there.

For its brisk running time of just 83 minutes 'The Decline' does not leave you wanting. The film packs a punch right from the get go as it becomes not so much a question whether our students and their mentor will survive a global catastrophe, but more of will they survive each other. The characters, whilst barely touching on their back stories, are all relatable and convincing in their portrayals of citizens wanting to believe in life after the apocalypse and their survival at almost any cost. As such you feel invested in the seven principle cast, but can easily spot those who will get popped off before the final showdown comes. The film is pertinent especially for these times when the world is in the grip of a global pandemic, and as such the hysteria and paranoia that so rapidly engulfs the camp after the initial deadly accident shines through in spades, interspersed with a few moments of extreme violence that are also grounded in stark reality. The film is deftly and efficiently crafted, with moments of suspense and terror that will maintain the interest throughout, and the cinematography is top notch too with stunning vistas of frozen lakes and rivers, snow covered hilltops and mountains, and narrow snow blanketed trails through the surrounding pine forest. I was very pleasantly surprised by 'The Decline', and think you will be too. Worth searching out if you subscribe to Netflix.

'The Decline', merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-