‘This Is Not A Test’ Movie Review: Teen Trauma And Zombies Shake Up Dying Subgenre
Photo from Independent Film Company
From Jeremy Kibler
By now, it’s nearly impossible to make an end-of-the-world zombie movie fresh again. The new calendar year already started off with both the solid We Bury the Dead and the sensational 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, but “The Breakfast Club meets Dawn of the Dead” is a very enticing proposition. Based on Courtney Summers’ 2012 YA book of the same name, This Is Not a Test does not actually feature teenagers in detention during a zombie apocalypse, but there are five of them and they are inside the walls of their own high school. As a bleak apocalyptic horror-thriller set in the late-‘90s with teens at the mortality-facing center, it’s not bad.
Olivia Holt, who already has good taste in choosing genre mash-ups (Totally Killer, Heart Eyes, Jingle Bell Heist), plays Sloane, a high schooler who has grown even more depressed after her slightly older sister Lily (Joelle Farrow) left home. Right before she’s about to leave a suicide note and take her own life, Sloane and her abusive father (Jeff Roop) discover chaos in their neighborhood — infected people running around and biting each other. Not another zombie outbreak! Sloane ends up fleeing and holing up in her high school with a group of fellow classmates, including nice guy Rhys (Troy Gutierrez), hothead Cary (Corteon Moore), and twin siblings Grace (Chloe Avakian) and Trace (Carson MacCormac). They will do what they have to do to survive.
Knowing how to create a palpable sense of anything-can-happen danger with horror indies Backcountry and Pyewacket, writer-director-producer Adam MacDonald is an auspicious talent to bring this material to life. He has an expert handle on pacing, being relentless when the story calls for it and then slowing down when necessary, and there’s also a lot of cool, jittery camerawork on display. What makes This Is Not a Test stand out from the rest of the undead pack, though, is the underlying sadness associated with its suicidal protagonist. Putting an emotionally fragile person into an apocalypse is an interesting idea; they feel like they have nothing more to live for until getting thrown into an unthinkable life-or-death scenario. Think of it as hardcore therapy.
The film somehow isn’t completely dour or without a shred of hope, and there’s an angry, punk-rock sensibility made even more cathartic with gory, brain-smashing viscera and violence. Holt is very good at conveying heartbreaking anguish (and guttural screaming) as Sloane, who feels like she has nothing left to live for before and during a zombie apocalypse. Corteon Moore (From) brings a cool, calculated swagger to self-appointed leader Cary, while the remaining three actors are fully competent without making as much of an impression as Holt and Moore. Certified hunk Luke Macfarlane is an unexpected face to see, popping up and adding a jolt of interest as the kids’ English teacher Mr. Baxter.
MacDonald’s script blessedly saves the explanations for the zombie infection, but it unfortunately doesn’t mine enough characterization, Sloane besides. With all of that time to kill (there’s even a drinking game scene), you’d think these characters would have more to spill besides Rhys being a nice guy who always noticed Sloane. With that, a later dumbed-down decision from one of them comes out of nowhere—we were all dumb teenagers at one point, sure, but come on—only to put them further in harm’s way. Though a little slighter than it should be, This Is Not a Test is intensely rattling at times and a mostly life-affirming take on this left-for-dead subgenre.
Rating: 3/5
This Is Not a Test hits theaters on February 20, 2026.
