User reviews

This could have been excellent. Decent performance by female lead, but like many modern TV shows, the movie is simply all about stupid people making stupid decisions at every turn. These people deserved everything that came their way, as they had the collective intelligence of a baked bean.

And another thing: Fighter jets don't fly low over empty farm land in a pandemic! Waste of gas. Huge chance of crashing. Jets fly high, producers, for many good reasons...

Ultimately, this flick was a waste of a decent premise. It's billed as a sci-fi flick, but it's not.

You have been warned.

As the other reviewer has pointed out, this is more of a drama than a post apocalyptic sci-fi action action film but it has a certain style and captures the pandemic angle using a low budget reasonably well and this has always to be taken into consideration, so there is no CGI and no effects but it does have some merit as the acting, photography and atmosphere is not bad and although the story kinda fizzles out at the end it is bleak , nasty and vicious even though a lot of the story is not explained in detail it deserves a fair and average 5/10.

If youy have some kind of trouble about sleeping, then you have to see this movie, because is super boring and you will fall sleep instantly. No plot, too slow, many plot holes and with many nonsenses. I will give it a score of 2, for only two reasons: cinematography, and the very beatiful lead actress.

This movie was released just as the pandemic was starting back in March and yesterday was released on VOD.

Also yesterday the rating was around 5,now it's at 3.9 and dropping so that is an indication of the quality of this film.

This is not a suggestion to watch but rather to avoid. Not exactly Post Apocalyptic,more end of the world scenario,with poor acting, bad or nonexistent story. What's worse is that we now know what it's like when a global pandemic hits and how people,governments, WHO etc react. We have that experience now and as life is always stranger than fiction this zero effort scenario is not convincing.

Initially I was lured in by this 2020 movie's cover/poster. But turns out that it was actually the most interesting part about the entire movie, sad to say.

Right, well the storyline told in "Before the Fire" (aka "The Great Silence") from writer Jenna Lyng Adams and director Charlie Buhler wasn't a particularly outstanding or entertaining one. Sure, the movie was watchable, but watchable doesn't equal entertaining. I found the storyline told throughout the movie to be way too mundane and generic, if not downright bordering on being boring and pointless.

The acting in the movie was definitely adequate, although the actors and actresses had very solid material to work with in terms of a proper script and storyline. It was a shame though.

As the movie ended, I must admit that I was left with a feeling of being cheated out of something, as well as a sensation of 'was that really it?'. The movie just didn't feel wholehearted. Sure, the story came full circle at the end, but for me it was just a shallow movie experience.

I was expecting more contents with the encroaching virus, as branded in the movie's synopsis, but that was not to be. Sure, it was mentioned and it was there in the peripheral, but it never really played a bigger part in the storyline.

This movie was a swing and a miss, and while I managed to sit through the entire course of the movie, I can honestly say that this is not a movie that I will be viewing a second time. My rating of "Before the Fire" (or "The Great Silence") is a mere three out of ten. The movie was adequate in production value, but lacking in the entertainment department.

That I have to fast-forward through. This happens very rarely and I watch lots of films. During the quarantine, I've watched like 20 films and I just want to say I'm sorry since I just couldn't force myself to sit through this one.

It is in fact - boring and unengaging. After literally nothing interesting (besides setting up the premise) happened in the first 40 minutes I was just forced to fast forward through this one and believe me, I've seen a lot of slow films that work. Scenes are there for a reason, these have to establish something, characters, their relations, build up the atmosphere, you should avoid filler scenes in a film.

I don't want to go hard on the creators, but did no one really took a look at this film and say - this just can't work, it's too slow and we clearly have not enough material for a full feature?

The main lead is likable (although distractingly beautiful in a classic sense of the word), her character has an arc, the message in there, literally burning the bridges and killing the past, evolving.

Why not give the script some time and thought? Fill it with something interesting?

You must have at least one likable character going from scene to scene doing reasonably intelligent things

as previous reviewers have said - its not sci fi

I wasted almost an hour hoping it would improve but it didn't

I hope the film makers can learn that the audience needs to follow a character that behaves in a manner that we can support.

To say there are gaps in the plot is an understatement.

This is the worst movie I have ever seen. No idea whatsoever what the story was about. Seems a bunch of people just wanted their faces in a movie. Absolute crap. I can't even express how disgusted I am to have wasted precious time hoping that somehow, the movie will explain why all that happened in the movie happened. You can't just make a movie and start killing the people in the movie, for no reason.

I would rather rate the movie a 0/10.

I was in the mood for a trashy post-apocalyptic story. Came across this, saw the low ratings and thought here is my guy. What I got instead was a tight and interesting character drama. Pleasantly surprising. It has many faults, sure. Directing and cinematography is good, acting ok, but the editor should maybe find another career. But again, watch it with an open mind and you won't be sorry. Quite enjoyable.

Very Deep Pressing. And it's depressing. No conclusive ending. Beautiful actress heroine. Great first half. Is she sick? The virus? We never find out. It's not a silly movie; but it's deep pressing. Yeah, depressing.

Well I guess you could expect this kind of movie during a pandemic and basically i have no problem with that. My biggest problems with this movie are the following Lack of backstory. I had a hard time understanding what was going on and you had to guess quite a lot in the movie. There was also very hard to know the time frame. Had it been 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 years between the cuts. Also because now we know how people react in this kind of pandemic. And they surly don't react as in the movie.

I can not understand how some people here celebrate the acting in this one to be honest. I'm sorry I truly don't think the acting was anything but sad.

Please don't watch this one...please

Before the Fire (2020) is a movie that I recently watched on Shudder. The storyline follows an outbreak that causes an actress to be sent to the Midwest to her fiancé's family to live while he fights the epidemic through his job. As she arrives at her soon to be in-laws there's history of his and her pasts that threaten her chance for survival far more than the epidemic.

This movie is directed by Charlie Buhler (Rosebud) and was written by and stars Jenna Lyng Adams (Uncle John). This picture also stars Jackson Davis (Vida), Charles Hubbell (Memorial Day), M. J. Karmi (Answer to Nothing) and Tim Driscoll (Nebraska).

This is a movie that had potential with relatable characters, circumstances and dialogue. The acting was solid but there isn't much going on for the majority of the movie...you don't feel much intensity or impact from the various situations. The last 30 minutes a worthwhile villain finally emerges and the movie becomes a little more worthwhile. There is a twist at the end that almost makes the film worth your time.

Overall, this is a movie that had some potential but could have been better executed. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend skipping it.

What are these people thinking? Anyone who rated this movie 1/10 has never seen a REALLY TERRIBLE movie AND anyone who rated this movie 10/10 has never seen a REALLY GREAT movie. This movie was a typical low budget movie (simple plot, simple characters, predictable in every aspect). At 1 1/2 hours long it was OK. It's all in the expectations. Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.

This had some potential but went off the deep end after about 5 minutes. There is no.cohesiveness between scenes. Most of the male character look the same, so I never knew who was in the scene. Who were these people? I didn't care about any of them. Its just really bad and makes no sense. It seemed to end in the middle of the story which never made sense anyway. Don't waste your time.

I really enjoyed this. Certain portions (particularly backstory) were left to the imagination - a la Hitchcock's Pscho or Jaws style--and it worked...very well. The story was well laid out, but the audience wasn't spoon-fed (which I appreciated). The acting was really convincing. Cinematography was great. It painted an ominous picture, did a really good job capturing the fear and despair, and this movie was shot several years ago--before the current pandemic.

I realized while watching that I found myself tensed up in anticipation. I don't want to drop a spoiler so I can't even comment on my favorite scene.

I was surprised this wasn't rating higher--until I pulled up the dispersal and noticed a troll was dropping 1-star ratings. Not sure who peed in the troll's wheaties, but he/she needs to get over it. This was a strong offering from an indie film. I will see it again.

The virus has not spread there yet. We'll go there. We'll wait it out. And then as soon as it's over we will come right back home.

There's one admirable fact when it comes to the movie "Before the fire" and that's the prophetic nature of this movie. When the film was released in the UK and US, we were only at the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic as we know it today. Nobody thought that things would go so fast with only about a hundred infections in these countries at that time. Now 6 months later, we have millions of infections, and these countries are at the forefront when talking about the number of cases. Actually, this was the most terrifying part of the movie. The uncanny realism and the similarities with the current world we live in. The beginning of the film shows how panic slowly takes over a country. News reports that are gradually sounding more threatening. Supplies and resources are slowly depleted. Closed or jam-packed motorways. Airports where scheduled flights are canceled. And a lot of people who leave their possessions behind because they reside in a part of the country where a virus outbreak causes victims. To a greater extent, it's comparable to the situation at the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

Like everyone else, Ava Boone (Jenna Lyng Adams), a well-known TV actress, and her boyfriend Kelly Rhodes (Jackson Davis) are trying to get out of Los Angeles. Kelly manages to get a flight through an acquaintance who owed him. Only he manages cunningly to make sure that only Ava is on the plane so that she can sit out the epidemic in a safer place while he, as a journalist, handles an assignment to make a documentary about the pandemic. Ava's problem, however, is that she's returning to her hometown, which she left with Kelly for a variety of reasons years ago, and is forced to move in with the Rhodes family. Something she doesn't feel like doing because according to her the Rhodes family hates her. All in all, turns out it isn't so bad there. The relationship with her relatives, on the other hand, is a whole other thing. Needless to say, her relatives are the ones causing massive problems.

So "Before the Fire" isn't an apocalyptic film that focuses on the outbreak of a pandemic. Once Ava has settled with the Rhodes family and, to pass the time, lends them a helping hand at the farm, the film transforms from an SF/thriller to run-of-the-mill family drama. I believe that the label "Fiction" is outdated due to the current world situation. And you can't call it thrilling or exciting either. Even the amount of action is fairly limited. "Before the Fire" is more about opening old wounds from the past in a country where lawlessness reigns thanks to a chaotic health situation. The fear of coming into contact with infected people who ignore the quarantine measures is the only evidence that there's still global contamination happening. The fact that civilians are suddenly forming militias and taking justice into their own hands is a more dangerous situation for Ava. Why she had problems in the past with the Rhodes family and especially with her father, is nowhere explained. That's regrettable because that would make it all a bit more understandable.

Even though "Before the Fire" is a slow-burner and a not so very innovative film in terms of a storyline, it still managed to fascinate me in a certain way. Mainly because of the acting of Jenna Lyng Adams (who also wrote the script) and Charles Hubbell. Two extremely emotional roles. Especially the interaction between Ava and Max (Ryan Vigilant) is convincing and brings out the positivity in a life-threatening situation. Ava's father, on the other hand, is the personification of how such situations can bring out the bad in a person (or justify it). No, you can't call this film bad. Only the movie poster could put you on the wrong track. Many will be disappointed because their expectations are not being fulfilled. Don't expect a "Contagion" kind of movie. No way. In "Before the Fire" the epidemiological aspect shifts to the background and makes way for a family survival drama. Slanderers might even say that the part about a virus outbreak was added afterward to give it a more contemporary and current feeling. I wouldn't dare to say that though.

Really wasted my time Terrible Bad and silly story

This is a drama, a pandemic is secondary. It's not what I expected by the the description so it is boring. I gave it three stars because of the poor description and slow story line. However, the acting is good.