Episode 338: This is not a Test (2026)

Based on Courtney Summer's award winning YA novel of the same name from 2012 we are in a small Canadian town as the zombie apocalypse starts. Annoying teen Sloane is considering committing suicide because of her drunkard violent father, absent mother and now vacant sister.  But then after a bang on the door, we get the noises of the apocalypse and well, darn, it is the zombie apocalypse.

After losing her dad after ignoring his advice on staying alive not once, not twice, but thrice, Sloane joins up with the only other survivors from town, who all are from the same class at high school. What are the odds?

We get some decent effects and tension, I thought. Sloane is, if anything, the pain in the ass, and being the central character we see too much of her walking off by herself before she causes numerous deaths.

Plenty of naysayers moaning about this one, but I actually liked it. Anna and the Apocalypse without the singing, Breakfast Club without the John Hughes factor. You do feel like you've seen this before and that it is all derivative, until you realise the book was written 14 years ago.

What can I say? I enjoyed it. It felt like an elongated episode of Black Summer.

6/10