Day of Reckoning

Not quite as bad as those from the 1950/60's, but surprisingly poor CGI for 2016: The monsters are visually obvious additions. At one point, a dog-like creature attacks a man who - instead of trying to use his hands, throws them up! The acting was OK, as was the dialogue. The plot had reasonable promise but only for about a half-hour. The interactions between good and bad guys was believable for the most part. I don't think any interaction between the monsters and anything else - buildings, humans or other monsters - was believable. Shocking when almost all films rely heavily on such nowadays. Perhaps Sc-Fi channel has too rigid production schedules, or lousy quality control?

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.

I am a sucker for the horror genre, and I am the first to admit that I was lured in by the promise of the movie cover/poster. Especially because it did seem rather interesting, sort of a mixture between something demonic and zombiesque.

First of all, it was an uphill struggle to actually sit through the entire movie, because it was a massively generic storyline, which offered very little in terms of entertainment value, and even less so in originality. Furthermore, the storyline was horribly predictable, to the point of where you just shake your head well ahead of things actually happening.

But for a horror movie, then "Day of Reckoning" was scarily devoid of anything even remotely scary. And it would have served the movie well if they had opted to go for a proper storyline that could have bolstered the fact that this was intended to be a horror movie.

Furthermore, as a horror movie it is essential to have proper practical effects and/or CGI. Alas, it can be said in all honesty that this is something that "Day of Reckoning" didn't have. And it was showing blatantly on the screen, because the CGI was laughable at best, and it was super poorly animated to the point of being an eyesore.

I can't recall any of the acting performances in the movie, so it is safe to say the cast weren't particularly memorable. I am sure that they did the best they could given the severe restrictions they had anchoring them down.

Surpringly enough I managed to suffer through the entire ordeal that is "Day of Reckoning", but it was a very hard struggle. And I can honestly say that this is not a movie that you will return to watch a second time, providing you get through it the first time.

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!!!!!

I've given up on the SyFy Channel. This is typical of all their productions. Terrifying and spectacular scenes involving CGI monsters/aliens/whatever separated by deserts of arid narrative with little or no purpose other than taking the characters to the next scene involving CGI. It's just crap. Some visual engagement but zero intellectual value otherwise. The suits at SyFy either are idiots or venal purveyors of weird trash -- or both. Don't waste your time. There's so little artistic value, other than the yeoman efforts of the put-upon casts, that I honestly believe SyFy is soliciting scripts from middle-schoolers. With a title like "Day of Reckoning" and the very rare religious references made in dialog, one might suspect that some attempt at rationalizing the cause of a disaster threatening the existence of the human race might be made. One would be mistaken in that assumption. There's nothing here. Watching while drunk might improve the experience.