Yellow Skies

Imagine Cormac McCarthy's The Road set in the Australian bush, and you have Yellow Skies.

Like the post-apocalyptic dystopic future (aren't they all since 9/11?) presented in The Walking Dead, the apocalypse brings out the worst in people. 'Hunters' pillage and kill to obtain ever-diminishing supplies. Even going as far as eating other survivors.

Noah (Aaron Trevaskis) and Glenn (Arli Faruk) lean on each other to survive and have to decide how to handle a malevolent intruder in their camp (Gabriella Imrich).

Each of the characters has a chance to justify their moral relativism through a flashback. They tell you who they were before the apocalyptic event, and why they had to become the person they are now. 

Trevaskis, Faruk, and Imrich succeed in showing the humanity of their characters - even when they're doing inhumane things. 

Despite this, I felt the discussion of what to do with the intruder went on too long. They'd reach a decision. Then before carrying it out, they'd get caught up justifying why they were going to do what they were going to do. Tightening this section could lead to a punchier ending. The characters would still seem conflicted.

I must mention that the experience of walking through the set to your seats was a sensory explosion of eucalyptus, ancient earth, and gum nuts. Jack Bennett succeeded in bringing the Australian outback inside.

What type of person would you become inan apocalypse? Yellow Skies won't answer that question for you, but it will make you ask the question.

Daniel G. Taylor