The Long Walk Review: One of my favorite directors, one of my favorites films of 2025
Spoilers ahead for The Long Walk!
I don't know why more people don't hail Francis Lawrence as one of the best working directors of today. I freaking love everything he puts out. Sure, most of it is Hunger Games, but that's not at all a problem when that's one of my favorite franchises of all time. I don't know, he's just a master of directing fantastic adaptations. Anyway, I'll stop glazing Francis Lawrence and move into specifics of how he and his team made this Stephen King story so special in today's Reel Ranker review.
I love dystopian horror films like The Long Walk because they always feel so real. Supernatural horror is a lot more hit and miss for me when I know it's just not going to happen... It's just much less scary for me. This movie? Very horrifying.
Dystopian is always a genre I instantly gravitate toward, and this movie didn't disappoint at all. The premise of The Long Walk is that kids from across the United States are pitted against each other in a walking marathon that ends only when all but one of the characters stops walking. The catch is that if you stop walking, you get shot by the military and die. Amidst this walk, the boys face a lot of natural challenges that come with the human body... from sickness to diarrhea to Charlie horses to tying your shoe too slow, there's a lot of elements of survival the viewer wouldn't expect from hearing the premise alone.
I love how this film avoided being action-packed or flashy, like Squid Game or The Hunger Games. It was straightforward yet super bleak. The beautiful thing about this movie is how raw it is. I mean, there's almost nothing happening in this film except people walking and talking about their plans for what they'll do if they are the final survivor. They're just talking about their lives. It should be boring, but it's so captivating... like one of Tarantino's better movies, every piece of dialogue is the movie's action.
The Long Walk is a masterful yet restrained dystopian horror film in which the terror comes not from spectacle but from everyday setbacks that lead to death. The film cuts through with beautiful teenage dialogue that delves into the very relationships that bind humanity together and how impossible circumstances can change the human psyche.
Speaking of the dialogue, it'd be nothing without the film's incredible characters and acting. The acting in this film is phenomenal. I want to watch every movie that features any one of these boys; that's how well-acted these characters were. All of the characters, even the minor ones, were lovable. If the acting didn't make us feel for the boys so profoundly, the film truly would crumble. Thankfully, it didn't crumble; instead, it made our hearts crumble.
The Reel Ranker Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 95%
Letter Score: S+
Star Ranking: 5 out of 5
The Long Walk is a perfect, dark dystopian horror story. It's beautifully horrifying. It's a perfect depiction of the best and worst of humanity; it's a reflection on a ton of elements of survival that you'd never think about, until this film hits you with all of them in rapid succession. It's one of my favorite films I've ever watched, and, by definition, one of the best of the year.
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