They Will Outlive Us All

A Film by Jessi Gotta and Patrick Shearer

They Will Outlive Us All

A Film by Jessi Gotta and Patrick Shearer

Review by C. Dennis Moore

For years and years, I’ve had a recurring nightmare about bugs. It’s always a different dream, but the gist is the same, I’m trying to get from point A to point B, but everywhere I turn, there are bugs. And I hate bugs. There is literally nothing in the world I fear quite like I fear bugs. With that in mind, in her new movie THEY WILL OUTLIVE US ALL, Jessi Gotta is playing to the crowd.

It’s 2016 and the east coast has been wracked by fifteen hurricanes since Sandy. Brooklyn is nearly a wasteland. FEMA supply pallets populate the streets and a curfew has been set for the few residents left in the city.

Two of those residents, roommates Margot and Daniel, are seeing an awful lot of deaths in their building and trying not to attribute it to anything sinister. To stave off the bad thoughts, Margot is going to take a shower. To stave off the boredom, and to satisfy his own curiosity, Daniel is going to check out the apartment down the hall where police have recently cleared away the latest body. Margot said she thought she heard something in there a few nights earlier, and they’re curious about the health warning stickers all over the door.

While Daniel is snooping around the empty apartment, Margot heads downstairs to have it out with the superintendent over the lack of hot water when hot water was promised every from for four hours in the morning and again for four hours at night. But Ian, the super, isn’t answering her when she talks to him. He isn’t turning around to look at her. And the twitching is really creeping her out. Daniel, on the other hand, is staring wide eyed at the rattling bathroom door of apartment 407 and wondering “Why aren’t my legs running away?”

The roommates panic and meet up back in their apartment, hiding in their bathroom and comparing their very uncomfortable notes. Then Margot recalls how all of the bodies thus far have been found in their bathrooms.

The pair retreat to the couch for a night of drinking and horror movies, just wanting to wait out the current storm and hopefully everything will be better in the morning. Then they get a visitor, and given my recurring dream, they handle the situation about a million times better than I would. Which isn’t saying much because I would totally lose my shit, and Margot and Daniel aren’t too far behind me on that score.

THEY WILL OUTLIVE US ALL is the latest horror flick from rising star Jessi Gotta (THE BIG BAD, which I previously reviewed for The Horror Zine). A talented writer and actress, Gotta loves horror movies and is paying great tribute to the history of the genre with her resume which, to date, reads like a well-versed list of homages to past heroes. 

Her dialogue is sharp and witty, and while in the two movies I’ve seen, she is twice playing a disaffected young woman living just outside of societal norms, both characters could not be further apart from each other. And whereas in THE BIG BAD she carried the movie herself—and did an excellent job—in this case, she’s got the perfect foil in Nat Cassidy as Daniel.

The pair play their parts like old friends, as if they really are roommates, and have eased into a pretty comfortable life with each other. The two come across as the best of friends in a world short on trust, and they really seem like the kind of people you’d want to hang out with.

The first third of THEY WILL OUTLIVE US ALL spends its time wisely, setting up the suggestion that something might be a little off-kilter lately, but never dwelling too much or giving away too many details. Instead, we get to meet our main characters and it’s not long before we find ourselves invested and rooting for them to come through it okay—whatever “it” turns out to be.

The movie leans toward comedic horror, and the laughs aren’t forced and every chuckle or guffaw comes about as a natural progression of the characters and their personalities. A few weak shots here and there but all of them appeared to be as a result of budget constraints and not a lack of talent on anyone’s part. In fact, Cassidy and Gotta, as well as director Patrick Shearer, manage to work around the small budget in some very impressive ways.

Gotta’s work so far suggests a vision. She knows the type of work she wants to put out there and she’s doing her best to make it happen. Luckily she’s doing a great job. THEY WILL OUTLIVE US ALL is a fun movie that delivers in every way.

See more about the movie HERE

About the Filmmaker

Jessi Gotta is an award-winning NYC based horror film writer, producer, actor and director. After several years as a NY stage actor, she formed her first film production company, gotta/enk films, with co-conspirator Bryan Enk in 2009. Their first horror feature, THE BIG BAD, has screened at several national and international film festivals and won Jessi the Best Feature Writer award from the 2011 LA Femme International Film Festival. THE BIG BAD is now being distributed by Phase 4 Films.

Jessi’s second film and directing debut, ANNIVERSARY DINNER, has screened at several national and international film festivals and won her Best Short Screenplay from the Maverick Movie Awards. It will be screened across the world as a part of the Viscera Film Tour 2013-2014.

Her third project THEY WILL OUTLIVE US ALL is just entering the festival circuit! She wrote and produced this project under her new banner, a gotta &two shearers films.

About the Reviewer

C. Dennis Moore

C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances were in the Vile Things anthology, Fiction365.com, Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways. His novel, Revelations, is available in hardcover, trade paperback or ebook formats from Necro Publications. His most recent novel is The Third Floor.