I Am Alone is an independent movie directed by Robert Palmer and written by him, as well, together with Michael Weiss. It is about the star of a wilderness reality show named Jacob Fitts, played by Gareth David Lloyd. While alone in the Colorado Rockies filming, a zombie virus begins to spread and, on the first night, he is attacked and bitten by an infected person.
The producers of the show, having stayed in town, manage to survive and collect Fitts’ footage. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) study the footage to learn more about the virus and why it took Fitts longer to transform.
10 The Movie Took Place Near Montrose, Colorado
Chayson Bean, a good friend of Robert Palmer, and also a part of the crew under the art department, allowed the cast and crew to use his 3,000 acres of land around Montrose, Colorado. He also graciously lent his home for the cast and crew to catch some sleep and they used Chayson’s home as a base camp in the movie.
Montrose, Colorado, was the 12th location they visited for possible filming. Robert was scared that the town might not embrace them. During their Kickstarter campaign, the town organized their very first Friday Zombie art crawl in which hundreds of people, young and old, dressed up as zombies.
9 Violence And Gore Was Not A Priority
In an interview for Momentin conducted by David Duprey, Robert revealed that he and Michael Weiss are big horror fans. But Robert, in particular, isn’t really a fan of gore. When they conceptualized the film, they wanted the words to really have meaning and not just lead the viewers to another scare. They also knew that gore would cost them a lot of money, so they made the violence secondary and emotions primary.
The movie was scary, especially when showing the fear of the main character, Jacob, who is not trained for a situation like being attacked by people. What our mind fills in is can just be scary, according to Robert.
8 Pinpointing Gareth David-Lloyd's Effectiveness On Screen
While we don’t see much gore and violence in this movie like we have come to expect in zombie-themed movies, Gareth David-Lloyd has raised the stakes in this one. Robert and Michael looked for an actor who has never been associated with this kind of film before. They found Gareth, who played Ianto Jones in Doctor Who and in the spinoff series, Torchwood.
Gareth’s character made the story stronger by being a very charismatic reality show host and, just when the viewers become comfortable with this, his character dramatically changes into a horrendous infected person. His emotional range was a big contribution to the film’s scariness.
7 Humanity As Film’s Focus
The film was a “journal” type of movie, which makes the story more personal. It was tough for Robert and Michael to tell the story with the angle they had in mind.
They avoided the cliché of having a group trapped in a single location. Being infected in a small town was a more practical storyline and also more practical with regard to the budget, of course. The writers wanted humanity to be the focus of the film. So they focused on Jacob’s character and his struggle when he was infected.
6 Gareth Was Alone, Literally
In an interview by DJ Forrest, Gareth said that he had a brilliant time playing the role of Jacob Fitts. He was sent to the site alone, shooting everything with a GoPro camera. It wasn’t like a usual film set, shot in a specific way with a crew in a specific place. In the movie, the crew had to completely disappear.
To achieve this, the crew use their phones as monitors linked to the GoPros. As far as Gareth was concerned, he really was all alone, which helped him in his performance.
5 Movie Budget Gained Through Kickstarter
The film was funded through Kickstarter. The production’s initial plan was to raise an amount of $25,000, which would cover the crew’s salary, living expenses, equipment rentals, costumes, make-up, pre-production and post-production expenses.
If the money raised was higher than the proposed amount, it would be used to enhance production quality. In the end, the film raised over $27,000.
4 What Made It Transcend Other POV Or Zombie Themed Movies
Found footage narrative is not new to us at all, with the likes of Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project. Many fans felt that there wasn't the need to have any more of these kinds of movies. Some also feel that zombie-themed movies are painfully overrated, with repetitive plots, and those who have tried to deviate from this have sometimes been entirely ridiculous.
A zombie theme with a found footage narrative seems, at first, to be overly cliché, but it is actually a unique combination of styles. What makes Robert Palmer’s film different is that the incidents play out in real-time, making the action genuinely effective and scary. As the movie comes to an end, it’s not the horror that sticks with you, but the impact of one man’s struggles.
3 You've Seen Gareth David-Lloyd Somewhere
If you are an avid sci-fi junkie, you might recognize Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones from the British sci-fi series, Torchwood. For those who are not familiar, Torchwood is about the adventures of alien hunters and time travelers working at the Torchwood Institute, a British secret agency founded by Queen Victoria. They hunt aliens and defend the planet from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats.
Gareth was the main character until he was written off before the fifth season. Gareth is also a voice actor who was the voice of Solas in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
2 Gunner Wright Has A Gaming Background
If you think you have seen Gunner Wright somewhere and not in an actual movie or series, you probably have. If you are an avid gamer, you will know him as the face and voice of Isaac Clarke in the game Dead Space 1, 2 and 3. His face is very recognizable when looking at his hairline, eyebrows and bridge of his nose.
He provided the grunts and screams and his popular firing voice when using his weapons, hand cannon and devil horns. This is another interesting fact for fans of sci-fi since this game has a theme of survival and horror set in a spacecraft and Isaac must fight reanimated alien corpses.
1 Awards And Nominations Despite The Microbudget
Though critics and audiences alike have pretty contrasting opinions about I Am Alone, the film has garnered numerous nominations and wins. The film was nominated Best Film and Robert Palmer as Best Director at the Scare-A-Con Film Festival Horror and Sci-Fi Convention in September 2015. It won the Audience Choice Award in the RIP Horror Festival and Robert Palmer was awarded Best Director for a Feature Film in October 2015.
It also won Best Zombie Movie and Gareth David-Lloyd won Best Actor at the Friday Night Film Fest in October 2015. And lastly, Robert Palmer won Best Director at the Kapow Intergalactic Film Festival.
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