Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Decline’ on Netflix, a Canadian Thriller About a Group of Heavily Armed Survivalists

Netflix movie The Decline is a Quebecois thriller from director Patrice Laliberte, who won an award at the Toronto International Film Festival for his short film Overpass. His feature-length debut promises to be a nailbiter — but will it be one little nibble on a pinky or will we be gnawing down to our knuckles?

THE DECLINE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Antoine (Guillaume Laurin) shakes his young daughter (Juliette Maxyme Proulx) awake in the middle of the night: It’s time. Do you have your survival kit? Don’t forget your pet turtle! They meet their wife/mom (Isabelle Giroux) in the garage, hop in the Subaru and take off. In the distance, a siren wails. They drive for a bit, stop the car. That was better time than the previous apocalypse-prep drill! And YOU thought something was actually happening. Psych!

Antoine is a big fan of Alain (Real Bosse), who makes internet survivalist instructional videos, e.g., how to seal rice in a foil bag so you’ll have something to eat after the world goes to pot. Alain also hosts a paranoid-survivalist training camp on his remote 500-acre wilderness plot — so remote, he has to pick up Antoine on a snowmobile and drive for a while, and so paranoid, Antoine has to hand over his cell phone and wear a blindfold during the ride. Ha ha, no big deal, I’m sure everything will be fine!

At the camp, Antoine meets five other like-minded folks: Rachel (Marie-Evelyne Lessard), Anna (Marilyn Castonguay), David (Marc Beaupre), Sebastien (Guillaume Cyr) and Francois (Marc-Andre Grondin). They span the left-right ideological divide of climate change believers and deniers, but are all united by their belief that, one way or another, the world is going to hell and there’s no way they ain’t gonna be hella prepared.

Alain warns them about booby traps on his trails, which is nothing to worry about at all. He teaches them stuff, from cultivating plants in a greenhouse (actually helpful, Bob) to firearms training (OK, Bob) to very aggressive firearms training (not great, Bob) to building their own incendiary devices (even worse, Bob). When Alain makes comments about defending himself from “migrants with machetes,” Antoine and Rachel catch each other’s eye, which is their way of clenching their teeth, except with their eyes instead of their teeth. And then, suddenly, there’s an explosion, and nothing is wrong at all, everything is fine, just fine.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Red Dawn! WOLVERINES!!!! Oh, and also The Thing and The Grey, because Laliberte borrows a little bit of that cooped-up/campfire wilderness process-of-elimination vibe. And then he ramps up the tension like Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) or Taylor Sheridan (Wind River) might.

Performance Worth Watching: I’m going to cheat a little bit here and say Laliberte’s performance stands out, because he directs the heck out of this thing down the stretch.

Memorable Dialogue: A proud Alain praises his proteges: “When I look at you, I see lucid citizens.”

Sex and Skin: None. TBLHTSAGARTF: Too Busy Learning How To Snare And Gut A Rabbit To F—.

Our Take: Early on, Antoine offhandedly states that he’s saving rice for 20 years in case of an epidemic, and I just can’t DO this right now. Thankfully, that’s not what The Decline is about; it’s ever so slightly about human nature, but mostly about itself, because it’s a highly satisfying exercise in suspense. As things in the north inevitably go south, the film delivers absolutely when it needs to.

Laliberte’ keeps proceedings to a taut, no-nonsense 83 minutes, and teases just enough reality-based sociopolitical paranoia to render it plausible. Maybe it’s a little contrived at times; maybe the characters could use another shade or two; maybe we’re clenching our sphincters too tightly to care all that much.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Decline is a damn good genre flick that plays Rachmaninoff on your nerves.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Decline on Netflix