Darkest Day

I picked up a copy of "Darkest Day" given the movie's cover was fairly interesting and depicted zombies. Yeah, a zombie movie, and I am all in.

However, it turned out that "Darkest Day" was a mere cash-in and a copy of the 2002 "28 Days Later" movie, and it was not a particularly good imitation. And it was painstakingly clear that writers Will Martin and Dan Rickard had borrowed heavily from writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle's 2002 movie. Tch. Tch.

And this is not a traditional zombie movie, so if you like me sit down to watch "Darkest Day" hoping it is a proper zombie movie, you will be sorely disappointed. First of all, it is mere infected humans with rage, yeah surprise, where did we see this before? Infected humans running around all fast and agile jumping and violently assaulting uninfected with fists and teeth.

The acting in "Darkest Day" was adequate for the type of movie that it was, which is not a major Hollywood blockbuster with so many millions in its budget that it could have supported a small country for years to come.

As for the storyline, well it was just too mundane and offered nothing much of any interest to the audience, and that was essentially the coup de grace to the movie, ending its misery and sending it far beyond mediocrity.

And the characters in the movie were very flaccid, one-dimensional and essentially merged with one and each other to the point where you didn't have any interest in them or a lack of care when they were infected or killed. And the actors were struggling with bringing their characters to life on the screen because everything was stacked against them in terms of proper characters.

I endured "Darkest Day" to the very end, an ordeal in itself, and one that I can't really recommend that you embark upon. This addition to the zombie movie came and went without as much as a groan, shamble or an infectious bite.

A young man called Dan (Dan Rickard) wakes up on a beach with amnesia. He wanders through a derelict town and stumbles upon a couple. Out of the blue, the man called Ben is murdered by a crazy man and Dan and the woman called Lisa (Christianne van Wijk) flee. She brings him to a house with survivors and he befriends the group: the leader Sam (Chris Wandell), Kate (Samantha Bolter), James (Richard Wilkinson), Stephen (Christian Wise), Will (Simon Drake), Adi (Adrienne Wandell) and Satch (Simon Bennett-Leyh). Meanwhile the army is taking over the town. Soon Adi is infected and their friends are forced to kill her. When a group goes to a supermarket to scavenge supplies, they stumble upon the army and Dan and Lisa escape together. But a sniper kills Lisa and Dan subdues and kills the soldier. He finds a wanted note with his photo in the pocket of the soldier. Why is the army hunting Dan down?

"Darkest Hour" is neither a great nor a bad zombie film as most of the reviews indicate. It is an entertaining low budget movie, with deficiencies in edition and camera work, but that can be disregarded considering it budget. The action scenes with shaking camera are annoying and unnecessary. But the story is good and the performances are not bad. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Oh a zombie apocalypse ! Just what the world needs - not . You can understand why they're popular with low to no budget film makers because all it needs to take one is a small handful of extras , a quiet morning to film on some deserted streets and you've got a movie , one that you've probably seen a dozen times and were probably bored by the second , third or fourth time

So what's so different about this one ? you may ask and in reply all I can say is not much at all . If you've seen Boyle and Garland's 28 DAYS / WEEKS LATER there's very little new here . In fact the story starts with a young man waking up on a beach and the entire early segment is structured exactly like the beginning of Boyle's film on a mis en scene level except it's set in Brighton instead of London . Even the music is similar to 28DL . The only time the film goes its own way is in an inferior manner where the uninfected do illogical things like have a house party ! I know Brighton has a reputation for hedonism but this is too much on a credibility level . It also copies the illogical plot turns of 28 DL where a wimpish middle class student is able to kill battle hardened squaddies with his bare hands . I know Britain's military reputation has plummeted after Iraq and Afghanistan but you'd think a soldier would get the better of a student once in a while

Searching on the internet I found out DARKEST DAY cost less than £1,000 to make , was shot over a long period of time . In other words it's a labour of love Unfortunately as an audience member I am under no obligation to love any film . It might have worked better if it had a bigger budget , a more developed screenplay and a better cast but you could say that about most films that aren't Hollywood blockbusters

Darkest Day: A man wakes up on Brighton beach with no memory of who he is; no, its not Jason Bourne: this is a (low budget) Zombiesque movie. Zombiesque because the crazed virus victims appear to be alive but otherwise act very much like Zombies and rule over Brighton. (Could this be an allegorical allusion to the Greens?). The man teams up with some uninfected partying dudes and gals in Brighton who avoided the army evacuation after the Viral Outbreak. Soldiers are now shooting anyone they see in evacuated areas.

Worth watching, 5/10.

If you have watched the 28 films then don't bother you have seen most of this film already. The acting is stiff, the dialogue is short and uninteresting. The only thing that vaguely interested me what's why the army were chasing them, but your given the answer in 3 seconds of diologe and to be honest I missed it! It would be brilliant if your mate had made it on a old hand held, but is not, so... It's not. Don't be fooled though they have retitled it and re-released it as 'infected' 2021. It's still as naff.