While there will always be an audience for zombie flicks, there is such a thing as oversaturation. Since the dawn of horror cinema, filmmakers have been infatuated with the undead, often as metaphors for race relations, civil rights, contamination of power, and broken youth. In its heyday, AMC’s The Walking Dead series proved that apocalyptic flesh-eaters still had plenty to say, but, like most things in popular culture, it ran its course, and horror fans moved on to something else. Most recently, we have 27 Years Later and its sequel, The Stone Temple, which have rejuvenated the genre, yet there’s an inevitable sell-by date. Adam MacDonald’s This is Not a Test, based on the novel of the same name by Courtney Summers, throws its proverbial hat into the ring, hoping to bank on renewed interest in zombies but failing to get past the genre’s crucial multiple choice.

This is Not a Test should have been a slamdunk. You have a killer cast of horror’s new generation—Olivia Holt, Froy Guitierrez, Carson MacCormac, and Corteon Moore—and a pretty easy setup. The film, which tells the story of a group of students who barricade themselves inside their high school, guns for a vehicle to engage in an existential conversation about becoming an adult (think: Anna and the Apocalypse), and the endless possibilities that await youth. There’s a tremendous amount of heart, but there’s a lack of urgency and desperation among the characters. The stakes couldn’t be higher, yet the group does a whole lot of talking and little else.

Sloane, played by the always-captivating Holt, endures an abusive homelife when the world ends. Her sister Lily (Joelle Farrow) left following a particularly violent incident with their father. Sloane then became a punching bag, even when zombies started attacking the suburban block. There’s just no escaping the brutuality of humanity, and through the story, Sloane must break the shackles of the past and find the warrior she’s always been. Once meeting up with Rhys (Guitierrez), Grace (Chloe Avakian), and the others, they take refuge in their fortified high school. It seems as safe a place as any. But when they find their English teacher, Mr. Baxter (Luke Macfarlane), things aren’t exactly as they seem. And all bets are off.

This is Not a Test fails even the basics. There’s an off-hand remark about zombie lore (you have to be bitten to turn), and nothing established about them learning to kill them in the head. The film has something real to say, but it doesn’t dive deep enough to add anything substantial or interesting to the genre. It treads water for much of the runtime, with very few graphic bursts of violence and blood. Sloane’s backstory is not enough to keep it afloat, quickly nosediving by the mid-way point. It’s unfortunate. MacDonald, behind the Slasher series, Pyewacket, and Backcountry, is a proven student of horror (an A+ student, at that) with some of the best horror stories of the modern era. But it’s as though he didn’t study for This is Not a Test, or even more egregiously, bought one of those For Dummies books.

Adam MacDonald’s This is Not a Test is… fine. If you have nothing else to watch, perhaps you should try it out. Outside of Sloane, the characters have nothing to offer beyond shallow needs and desires. By the time the third act hits, despite one shocking surprise, it’s difficult to feign interest. This is Not a Test is about as forgettable a zombie film as you can get. It’s a bummer.

This is Not a Test opens in theaters this Friday (February 20)