'New Life' Injects Heartbreaking Humanity into an Apocalyptic Contagion Thriller Told Through a Small-Scale Lens

​One of the many things that terrified me early on during the Covid pandemic was the idea that I could be an a-symptomatic carrier infecting people I cared about. No sign of disease, but on a microbiological level, a Party City for contagion. In his feature debut, New Life, writer/director John Rosman delves into that very horror with a film that builds like a fever, slow and steady before spewing blood on the walls in a violent loss of bodily control.
 
Jessica (Hayley Erin) is on the run. She doesn’t know why she’s being hunted, only that to be captured means imprisonment…or worse. Elsa (Sonya Walger) has been tasked with finding her. She’s told Jessica is infected with a strain of Ebola and must be captured before reaching the Canadian border. Recently diagnosed with ALS, she knows this will be her last contract. But what the young woman carries isn’t Ebola…and it’s leaving a bloody trail in her wake.
 
A contagion thriller, New Life immediately drops the viewer into blistering tension as we meet Jessica, hurrying through backyards, face covered in blood, hiding from people with guns on her tail. We don’t know why she’s being chased. And we won’t for at least the next forty minutes. That’s because Rosman takes his time in developing his two leads with care, exploring a small-scale human story with apocalyptic consequences. After Jessica’s initial intro, we watch as she roams the countryside, meeting the occasional (quite friendly) stranger and relishing in the peace and quiet of the great outdoors. Meanwhile, Elsa contends with her diagnosis, struggling with the way her own body has started to feel like a prison. Grey, melancholic tones follow the former, while the latter is often surrounded by white, clinical spaces, each reflective of what their life has become. These are two characters on the run, from others and from themselves. There aren’t too many thrills during the first half, but the gradual progression is done with the intent of establishing the value of life. The yearning to see the world. And the tragedy of knowing that their circumstances may make that an impossibility for the main characters.

What’s impressive is how deftly Rosman balances infection horrors with a thoughtful character study brought to life by powerful performances from Walger and Murdock. Both performers break your heart as they suck you into their worlds, their hopes, their dreams. You fear for sweet Jessica as she goes from place to place, unaware of what she’s carrying. You empathize with Elsa as her body fails her again and again, bringing her closer to a life without the one thing she cherishes most, her work. A reaction to the Covid pandemic, New Life doesn’t just feel timely. It ruminates on those feelings that have been with many of us since 2020. Beautiful landscape images yearn for a peace that’s difficult to find in the madness of society. Contrasting the quiet is abject horror that comes with shocking reveals of what Jessica is really carrying…and what she has unintentionally brought to those who have helped her. There’s a certain terror in acknowledging that you may have killed someone else by spreading a disease you weren’t aware you had, a sensation that most of us are all too familiar with these days, and that Rosman’s film hits with pinpoint precision. 
 
New Life’s pus-filled boils mostly come with what is likely budgetary restrictions. The practical makeup and body horror effects all shine in their chilling execution, but there’s a lack of believability in the premise, despite the filmmaker’s applaudable attempts at avoiding the issue. Careful blocking and production design do their best to hide the fact that the operation backing Elsa appears smaller than the pair of employees managing your local Starbucks…a difficult to buy into concept once you realize the magnitude of the issue. Commentary on how society throws the disabled under the bus in the face of disease, while admirable, also doesn’t land quite as well as intended for similar reasons. With most of our focus on Jessica’s journey and Elsa’s progression with ALS, the tense search for the former becomes almost secondary. Rosman keeps things simple throughout most of the film, resulting in a sort of detachment from the hunt that detracts from the “thrills” of this contagion thriller.
 
Somewhat sluggish—though never tired—pacing and obvious budgetary restraints aside, New Life nevertheless succeeds in its intention. Four years into Covid, Rosman presents an uncomfortable commentary on the new life we’ve all experienced since coming to an understanding of how quickly disease can change things on both a micro and macro level. Poignant and heartbreaking yet refreshingly hopeful despite the tragedy that lurks within, Rosman’s solid debut establishes him as a filmmaker with the potential to infect the horror scene with his voice for years to come.

New Life is now available on VOD from Brainstorm Media. 

By Matt Konopka