The Trailer for The Night Eats the World Looks like 2018’s Most Interesting Zombie Movie

It’s understandable why young directors keep on making independent zombie movies. Even 50 years after George Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead, many of the same tenets of the genre hold true:

1. They’re relatively cheap to make,

2. They satisfy a certain itch among horror hounds, and

3. There’s usually some space in there for social commentary on human nature or modern life—at least in the better ones.

Yes, zombie movies are evergreen—even in a post-Walking Dead world that reached and then passed “peak zombie,” indie zombie movies still proliferate on a yearly basis, and we’re still occasionally given some very good examples, such as 2016’s Train to Busan. In fact, you should probably just check out our list of the 50 best zombie films of all time, while you’re at it.

Seeking entry to that list in 2018 is The Night Eats the World, which just dropped its first trailer online. Alternatively titled La Nuit a Dévoré le Monde, the French production is from director Dominique Rocher, but the dialog appears to be entirely in English. Its story and synopsis appear to be quite simple: “The morning after a party, a young man wakes up to find Paris invaded by zombies.” The film simply chronicles that young man’s survival in a world that appears to have become entirely dead. Or has it?

Fan reviews of the film have likened it repeatedly to 28 Days Later, or a version of that film where Cillian Murphy’s character never finds a group of companions, and how he might have reacted to that crushing loneliness. Personally, I’m reminded of 2012’s underseen The Battery, a zombie drama about a pair of young men wandering the country aimlessly, looking for anyone else alive. One thing is for certain: This looks like a zombie film that prioritizes atmosphere and characterization rather than action or outright gore.

Check out the trailer for The Night Eats the World below. The film hits select theaters and VOD on July 13, 2018.