Days of Darkness (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Sabrina Gennarino, Travis Brorsen, Roshelle Pattison, John Lee Ames, Marian Tomas Griffin, Eric Stuart
Directed by Jake Kennedy
Distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Trends. They come, they go, they come back. Horror has always been a trend based genre. We’ve gone through different spells in which you couldn’t make a particular kind of film quickly enough. Recently zombie movies were on top of the horror game, but after a while the undead beasties wore out their welcome, the reason being that once a type of movie gets popular, everyone wants to make one as a means to pocket some quick cash. Walk into any video store, and you’ll see hundreds of cheapo zombie flicks sitting on shelves. Maybe 25% of them turn out to be worth your dime so when you find one of them that is, revel in it! Director Jake Kennedy’s latest flesh-eater opus just makes it into that good percentile.
This time it’s a comet that starts the latest plague causing the dead to rise. Well, not really. I mean yes and no. Err … let me explain. You see the dead don’t really rise. It’s more like the living became infected by the dust the comet gave off as it entered our atmosphere. But the trouble doesn’t exactly end there either for our lucky band of survivors who find themselves holed up in an abandoned facility. This newest unnatural disaster has a bonus affect. Attached to the falling star were alien organisms that need hosts in order to grow. Hence, the infection. Talk about a double whammy. Aliens. Zombies. All we need now is a crackerjack band of people who almost always do the wrong thing at the right time, and BOOM! instant gore-fest! Well, whattaya know! They’re here, too!
Days of Darkness does just about everything right; yet, two crucial ingredients every good undead film should have are missing — good looking zombies and the appropriate amount of splatter.
The zombies here are way too plain looking to be interesting or frightening. They don’t even have pale make-up on. Just some stage blood splattered here and there. Not a single one of them stands out for any reason at all. What’s a zombie film without hero zombies?!? You know, the ones that are so cool looking you just don’t forget them! Sadly, they’re nowhere to be found. Now on to the problems with the splatter.
Yes, this flick does have some great gooey moments, but they’re almost always cut too quickly so you can’t really appreciate them. Now it should be noted that this is a low-budget indie film so the team had to cut corners wherever they could, but come on, guys, at least give us that one monster effect! The one that we’ll tell our friends about. Again, sadly, it’s nowhere to be found.
It may sound as if I’m riding this movie a bit hard, and I guess that I am. But that’s only because every other aspect of the film is pulled off so damned well. The script, the acting, and the direction of Days of Darkness are startlingly pitch perfect. You’ll be laughing, screaming, engrossed, and most importantly, thoroughly entertained. Kennedy and company have released a film that is part Day of the Dead, part Invaders From Mars, and part Carpenter’s The Thing; and as a result it stands as one of the best indie horror films I’ve seen all year.
In the end, Days of Darkness did give me just about everything that I wanted from a flick. Just not everything I wanted from a zombie flick. Maybe I’m just too jaded. Who knows. In the interim keep your eyes on Jake Kennedy. Given a proper budget, this guy could be horror gold!
Special Features
3 1/2 out of 5
Special Features:
1/2 out of 5
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