Extinction takes place in a near future where humanity has all but been made extinct by some unknown event that created flesh-eating zombies. Two men and a little girl have managed to survive some nine years since the outbreak by isolating themselves in the frigid town of Harmony, although not through a joint effort. Patrick (Matthew Fox, Lost), a grizzled loner, lives next door to Jack (Jeffrey Donovan, Burn Notice) and his daughter, Lu (Quinn McColgan), although they may as well be miles apart for their lack of interaction. Patrick goes out each day with his dog, hunting animals for food and scavaging local residences and businesses, while Jack and Lu eat the same old canned foods, but Jack tries to make Lu's existence as normal as possible. Well, as normal as life can be when you are the only kid alive and your only companionship comes in the form of your dad and the occasional visit from Patrick's dog through a hole in the fence. In the evenings, Patrick gets on the radio and broadcasts to anyone who might be listening, but after nine years of silence, it amounts to little more than the ramblings of a hermit. At least the zombies seem to have died off from the cold as they haven't been spotted in many years.

Then one day everything changes. Lu spies a "monster" outside at the fence, a horrifying white creature with a bloody mouth, but Jack dismisses it as a bad dream. Meanwhile, Patrick encounters this same creature or one very much like it while out looking for supplies and it chases him back to their homes. It is all he can do to try to warn Jack and Lu before he and the monster get near to the house. It then becomes clear that Patrick and Jack are going to have to put aside their difference and work together if they are all going to survive.

While this seems the obvious choice, Jack and Patrick knew each other at the time of the breakout back when Lu was just a baby and Patrick's wife, Emma (Valeria Vereau) was still alive. There's some bad blood between them and blame, accusations and resentment that's been allowed to fester for nine years, so it will be tough to work together as a team, but they both want what is best for Lu. Another shocker comes in the form of the discovery of a pregnant woman who came from a neighboring community, one they didn't realize existed. She tells horror stories of the monsters and the group realizes that they are not dealing with the zombies from nine years before - this new species has evolved and adapted to the cold and works as a team. The newly formed group of 4 will have to fight for their survival if they have any hope of finding other survivors and ensuring the continuation of the human species.

Extinction has its share of jump scares and creepy moments, but it also left me with questions and thoughts on how stupid this pair of guys must be to let a grudge keep them from banding much earlier. Because of the snowy white palette and icy conditions, Extinction reminded me a bit of 30 Days of Night, although I thought that film was scarier. A good bit of Extinction is character development and backstory and also trying to figure out if living the life of a loner has driven Patrick insane. That's a question that's never really answered, though. The zombies are fairly creepy and they are practicals instead of CG, while pretty much all of the backgrounds are CG. Still, it looks pretty good and the surroundings are believable enough.

If you want more details on the film, there are a bevy of featurettes that go into the adaptation from the Spanish novel, as well as the filming, the cast and more. Most of it is in Spanish, though, since much of the cast (aside from the main actors) is Spanish. Personally, I am not fond of having to read subtitles during a featurette.

Extinction is an okay horror movie. It's not great and it's not terrible, it's simply average. If you can catch it on Netflix, that's your best bet. The actors do a great job conveying their roles, it just isn't the scariest zombie flick out there.