Credit: Netflix

Halloween season is officially gone, but the horror hangover clearly persists on Netflix with apocalyptic scares pinned to its coattails thanks to This Is Not a Test.

During the week of October 26th to November 1st, the 2025 apocalyptic horror-thriller cracked Netflix’s most popular movies chart with 2.1million views, becoming one of the top 10 trending titles in 21 countries! While that’s quite an achievement for the movie’s debut week on Netflix charts, it is also one of the three non-animated movies charting on the international rankings this time around.

Directed, written, and produced by Adam MacDonald, This Is Not a Test is an apocalyptic horror-thriller based on Courtney Summers’ bestselling 2012 novel. It follows Sloane Price, a suicidal teenager living in a domestic violent situation, whose plans of ending her life are cut short by a sudden zombie apocalypse after an infected person bites her alcoholic, abusive father.

After fleeing home, she stumbles upon a small group of close-knit high school classmates who decide to take refuge inside their school, Cortege High, believing it offers familiarity, basic amenities, and supplies. But as the infected horde invades the school, their safe haven turns into a bloody trap, leaving everyone uninfected to fight for their lives.

The film expertly weds classic teen-drama tropes with fast-paced survival horror. However, it doesn’t really rely on excessive slasher action, since much of the gore originates from unfamiliarity with a familiar place, isolation, and paranoia.

Although This Is Not a Test starts with Sloane ready to die, the brutal reality of the apocalypse gradually ignites a survival instinct and a renewed will to live. But can she ever truly reconcile her desire to live with the lethal threat overpowering normalcy? Find out for yourself when you tune in to the horrifying book-to-screen adaptation, currently streaming on Netflix.

For those wondering what triggered This Is Not a Test’s unexpected rise on Netflix’s weekly chart, well, the surge has a lot to do with seasonal demand, recognisable genre tropes, a shocking plot twist, and, of course, social media word-of-mouth.

Not to forget, the movie is a direct adaptation of Summers’ popular young adult novel, which caters to an existing fan base blown away by its translation of the character-focused story from page to screen. While readers find something new in the familiar story, new audience discovery also turns out to be a game-changer.

This Is Not a Test also features a recognisable cast that strongly fascinates Gen Z and horror spectators, including Olivia Holt from Heart Eyes, Froy Gutierrez from Teen Wolf, and Luke Macfarlane from Bros. In fact, director MacDonald is also a horror favourite, and his genre credits include Pyewacket and Slasher.

While there’s more than one convincing factor at play behind This Is Not a Test’s sudden surge on Netflix charts, we hope this helps those still struggling with second thoughts.