By Day's End

I sat down to watch "By Day's End" because it was a zombie movie, of course I did. I love the zombie genre, and given a chance I will sit down to watch any zombie I can. So I stumbled upon this 2020 addition to the zombie genre. I hadn't heard about it, but still decided to sit down and watch it.

Well, first of all I will say that "By Day's End" feels like a very ambitious amateur project. And hats off to the crew for that, because if that was the case, then they definitely managed to pull it off well enough.

I, however, wasn't expecting to see a movie like that, so I can't really claim that I could find much entertainment in "By Day's End". I watched the movie to the end, but I can't claim to say that this was an outstanding movie, not in any way.

The story was just way too generic, and it was essentially something you've seen done countless times before in other movies. However, "By Day's End" just didn't have the budget to make it visually astounding, nor memorable.

The acting in the movie, well it was okay, taking into consideration the context of the movie and the budget they had to work with. But again, it felt like something that was made by people with the right intentions and the hearts and spirits in the right places.

The infected - or the zombies - were not my kind of zombies. They were fast and agile, making very odd sounds, and seemed to display some level of intellect. All things that are a no-go in my view on the zombie genre. So this is where the movie lost me entirely.

I am rating "By Day's End" a three out of ten stars rarting. I've seen it, and can check it off of the zombie movie list, but this is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time.

Merely 'found footage' garbage. 30% motel security camera footage, 30% camera owned by the participants, 30% unknown stationary camera in perfect focus and framing. (NSA hidden camera?). All had bad sound. The acting was just adequate.

The first 15 minutes are unimportant boring background. 5 minutes of buying their camera, caught on motel security cam, for instance. (snore).

The zombies are simi-intelligent, simi-idiots. One zombie grabs the camera, yells "Movies", and runs away with it. Another zombie tries to attack her own reflection in the mirror. But it's not as funny as it sounds. I think it was not intended to be funny.

Their personal problems are boring. Does throwing zombies at them make them more interesting? I think not. Is found-footage more interesting or scary? Absolutely not.

Forced into a motel together, a lesbian couple on the verge of breaking up are put to the test when a supposed viral outbreak reaches the area and infects the other residents turning them into flesh-eating zombies forcing them to put their relationship and their lives on the line to get away alive.

Overall, this effort wasn't too bad. Among the best aspects here is the innocuous setup that slowly drops the exploits of the virus into their lives. Going for brief, random blurbs and news pieces while the main focus remains on the two of them as they attempt to fix their problems provides great hints of what's to come while still maintaining how to keep the relationship afloat. As the underlying theme here is that they were heading for a break-up but still manage to come together it the end by continuously helping each other while trying to fight off the creatures, there's a wholly enjoyable and sympathetic relationship at the center of this one. That early setup, in turn, brings the oncoming zombie pandemic scenes which are incredibly well-handled. The close-quarters mindset of staying in one location around the motel, and their room specifically, gives off the locale for solid, chilling sequences here from the initial contact with the woman and her infected husband, the continuous encounters as they try to poke their heads out of the room to get an update on what's going on or the escape attempts in the final half. Despite focusing on individual zombie attacks instead of swarms, this one still manages a great mix of thrilling action and brutal encounters through the found-footage technique that holds the film up. There are a few minor issues to be had here. The main problem is the usual issue affecting this genre where the entire course of their situation is caused through stupidity, from the failure to heed zombie rules by caring for an infected victim, failure to heed caution in protecting them from potential infection when they're in contact with zombies and completely ignoring the obvious to put themselves in harm's way. Most of the encounters around the motel result from general stupidity to keep checking on everything or even returning to their room after a horribly-botched escape attempt. That also applies to the usual found-footage tropes in place, but otherwise, there isn't much wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Honestly, there are worse movies than this and I have watched a lot of them honestly.....it's true that the story is really simple and you can clearly see where the movie is going by the first few minutes of the film but the redeeming factor of this is the suspense and horror of the whole movie., while the acting may be sub par, the director makes up for it through the scares in the film.

I would not recommend it if you're a die hard horror fan, you may be disappointed but if you're new to the genre, this may give you a start.

5/10

I'm sorry but I hope this film was made by either a bunch of film school students or a low budget indie group because it failed on all spectrums. The acting was almost comical it was so dreadful and the script and story line had more holes than swiss cheese. I actually sat through the whole movie hoping for some redeeming value to it but feel like I just wasted an hour and 15 minutes of my life for a dreadful and depressing ending.