'One Last Week' is an emotionally heavy and depressing tragedy about the facing one's own mortality but being able to face it through support of someone you might not expect. This story is really good about building a living world, even when that world is ending. The tension is palpable as it describes the slow burn of the struggle of trying to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine, when by all accounts, it shouldn't matter. The art style is extremely moody and evocative of how bleak, yet hauntingly beautiful it is. Choosing to exist only in shades of purple, it feels like an ever present reminder that this is not a normal world. The expressions on the sprites are great, and especially the imagery at the end makes this horror story less jump scary and more existentially scary.
My favorite expressions in the story where when these two characters finally opened up about their flaws and shortcomings. I could really relate to Birch, as someone who is afraid of change and would keep to a routine in order to stay safe and sane. While the main character has a more flippant nihilism of 'it's the end of the world, I'm going to do what I want', but ends up finding out that once getting it, it's a lot more empty than they expected. I think that's why it's such a good exploration of finding connections in community and relationships, something that both the characters seemingly avoided before this. In a way, I feel like this was implied, but would've been fun for them to touch upon it earlier in the story, but I suppose the message of this story is to not take the time you have left for granted, even if it is just one week.
I feel like for the horror genre in particular, the monstrous force usually has some kind of allegorical parallel to it. Since this story doesn't seem to have some kind of social angle to it, the best I can interpret is that it's potentially climate change, as the overwhelming nature growth is more akin to an inverse of what would normally happen (like the sun blocked out by a purple haze). The vivid imagery, like the lights of the vegetation at night, or the zombie vines, or when we're taken by the infection, I'm not sure if there's more to it than just being striking visuals. As well for the final confessions of the two characters, it's only a light pay off for finally confessing to each other, and only getting a kiss and some cuddle time. But, I figure this story is a little bit about restraint, so that's more of a subjective taste.
Overall, it's a really effective and emotionally tugs on your heart strings, since it's such a dire situation for the characters to be in. The theme of 'light in the dark' is really emergent in this type of story, though in a way, it took the other option of having the dark win in the end. I will say that an apocalyptic survival story is a little expected, but it does differentiate itself by the method of infection being something so slow but so unstoppable. Overall, not really my type of story, but even I can appreciate the skill to weave a horror story that has an undercurrent of terror rather than just an immediate threat.