Day of Reckoning

So you have monsters coming out of a hole in the earth every fifteen years. Salt kills them. And no one thought to dump salt water in the hole? Just wondering.

15 years after a massive demon attack, they come back to finish the job.

If you're a big fan of Signs and The Happening, have I got a movie for you! It's got all the elements that you loved about them, including bad writing, annoying characters, and monsters that have an inexplicably bizarre weakness.

Demonic monsters almost conquer the world overnight. The militaries of the world are shown to be completely overrun by the demons, even though salt destroys them. A dysfunctional family kills almost every demon they encounter, yet nobody else in the world can? Right, that makes perfect sense.

I doubt anyone cared whether they even made a good movie. It's kind of hard to blame them, though, given that this is a SyFy Original. I had to really lower my expectations to rock bottom once I saw that logo. I'm actually a bit annoyed that subscription streaming services would offer this up like it's a real movie. It's not even edited to remove the commercial breaks! It just fades to black in the middle of a scene.

Although the acting was occasionally poor, I think the real problem was the writing. Barbara Crampton, who always makes bad movies slightly better, appears in a smaller role. It was nice to see her again. Sometimes the other characters rose above the writing to become kind of tolerable, but it was a bit rare.

The special effects were bad. I've seen worse, but the problem is that those movies were so bad they were good. This one wasn't. The designs themselves were alright, but it looked like they hired the producer's brother-in-law to do all the technical work. It was unconvincing enough that they should have just stuck to practical effects no matter how cheesy, or, failing that, had a few monsters in the shadows, not a bunch demons in the daylight.

I made it to the end of the movie, so you probably can, too. I don't recommend you do that, though. If you're bored and looking for something to pass 80 minutes before bedtime, I guess it's okay.

A vote of 1 is too good for this movie. I stopped viewing after a few minutes.

You could tell from the start it was going to be awful with the cardboard acting.

The CGI must be an example of the worst CGI possible, it makes old Sinbad Plasticine creature look 100% real. ( I loved the old Sinbad movies as a kid)

Why do these people even bother? I downloaded it for free and feel cheated and criminal that it took space on my hard drive.

I worry about people that voted this above 1

Part of me knew what to expect from 'Day of Reckoning' and that it was meant to be not take it too seriously and take it for what it is films. The idea was a good one and the cover looked cool and a little creepy, so while not expecting much part of me wanted to enjoy it.

While there are certainly far worse films than 'Day of Reckoning', even taking it for what it's meant to be it is a major failure and really not a good film at all. There are similar films and low-budget films that have been surprisingly average and above, so actually 'Day of Reckoning' could have been good with the right execution. Instead a good idea is ruined by the terrible way nearly everything is executed and the coolness and creepiness stays in solely in cover and doesn't translate in the film.

'Day of Reckoning' at least has occasional splashes of fun and some semi-decent scenery.

However, while there has been worse acting it is still poor, both bland and forced. None of the characters are easy to get behind or interesting, it's all very flimsy and any attempts to develop them feel like melodramatic padding. Their decisions and behaviours also don't make sense and they show very little emotion to tense or dramatic situations.

Nearly everything severely underwhelms. Not just being visually cheap and poorly acted and written even worse but what seemed like a decent, if very generic, idea was executed in typical fashion, with no imagination whatsoever and only occasional splashes of fun.

Faring worse are the production values, story and writing. 'Day of Reckoning', aside from the scenery, is drably shot and sloppily edited, but it's the truly abysmal special effects that are the worst. As the creatures were made on a low-budget it would have been forgiven a little if it was not great, but when the effects for the sharks look as if no effort was given in making them without looking so goofy and unfinished-looking that is hard to ignore or forgive.

Can say no better about the portrayal of the creatures either. They exude little personality either, no menace, not even any unintentional goofiness. Generally the attack scenes, apart from the odd mild amusement, are sloppily edited, too brief and devoid of suspense or sense of horror. Moreover, there is no attempt to give them any explanation or development so the motivations and such are confused and vague.

It is hard to not take 'Day of Reckoning' seriously, when it itself doesn't know whether to take itself seriously or not. Some parts make earnest attempts to not be stupid but come over as pedestrian and over-serious. Other parts go well overboard on the silliness that one is cringing rather than being entertained.

Really wanted to like the story here because the concept was intriguing slightly, but while it starts nicely the further the movie progresses the lazier, cheesier and more formulaic it gets and it gets stale quickly.

Overall, very poor. 2/10 Bethany Cox

I give this film 3 stars because most of the cast does a very good job in putting a sincere effort to make this work. They did not have much to work with, but they tried! The story line is pure Syfy routine, and the ENTIRE storyline is trite and formulaic, and which has been rehashed in every movie they have EVER made!

The negligent and estranged husband/father is the hero of the day and he and his ex-wife fall back in love like EVERY movie they have EVER made.

The constant flow of plot connivences is hysterical. When a tool is needed SHAZAAM it appears, when someone needs to be found despite chaos and crowds SHAZAAM they are found. Also events not logical to the plot occur to make a point. Example: ALL the demons are gone, but one "last" one appears, in order to kill the bad guy at the end.

People who do not like guns SUDDENLY become sharpshooters, even the mother and teenage son! It is all so contrived that near the end I almost shut it off!

One last point is the fact that the family who become the heroes is all white and the two Hispanic characters are portrayed as the evil and cowardly soldier and the dimwitted boyfriend of the mother!!!

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!