It's another zombie apocalypse and another group of survivors take shelter while the hordes roam the streets in 2026's This is Not a Test. This movie's about as average as it gets. There is an attempt to make the zombie nightmare tie in to a domestic drama but it's all undercut by weak writing that forces the characters to behave unnaturally.
Sloane (Olivia Holt) is a suicidal teenage girl living with an abusive father (Jeff Roop). Her sister, Lily (Joelle Farrow), had recently left home, leaving Sloane with an overwhelming sense of despair because Lily was her only ally in the ongoing war with their father. Then zombies attack and Sloane finds herself with classmates, three boys and one girl, hiding in the high school with the doors barricaded.
It all builds towards a confrontation between Sloane and Lily which the zombie apocalypse facilitates in an interesting way. But the story would've been a lot stronger if any time at all had been spent developing their father as a character and detailing exactly what manner of abuse Sloane and Lily were subjected to.
Most of the film is set at the school and the teens bicker with each other about various things. The other girl, Grace (Chloe Avakian), is the twin sister of one of the boys, Trace (Carson MacCormac) and they both endanger everyone with mistakes that aren't stupid in a natural way but more like stupid in the way of a screenwriter who doesn't know how people think.
This is Not a Test is available on Shudder.
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