Lion Gates has always been a company that prides itself on putting out some of the best horror it can get it’s hands on. They have given us the Saw and Hostel films, and even were the ones to bring rob Zombie’s long awaited House of 1000 Corpses to the big screen. However although Lion Gates knows how to bring some great horror films to the screen, when it comes to their line of Home Entertainment the horror films in which the acquire are not always the best in terms of quality and story.
Days of Darkness does not fit into either the category of great home entertainment release or terrible one for that matter, but it is far from original in terms of where it gets it’s material from, but it is original in the way in which it presents it. Pretty much what we have here folks is another zombie film. Is it me, or are zombie movies becoming just as abundant as vampire movies? Well it sure seems that way and Days of Darkness is just another one for the fire. No pun intended. Its takes it premise from many of Romero’s films. It first uses the mentor theory that was bought up in Night of the Living Dead as the possible reason for the dead coming back to life. The film even starts out with two people a guy and a girl driving on a road when they run into a zombie that they fight off. Before you know it we go from a Night of the Living Dead rip-off to a Day of the Dead rip-off where a group of survivors are held up in what seems to be some sort of underground camp surrounded by fences to keep the zombies out. However as the story goes on we learn that the reason why they are zombies is because of an alien like organism that has taken over the human body. Now it’s up to the group of survivors to find a way to stop the undead from taking over and how to rid the parasite that inhabits them.
I don’t know where to begin. While this movie tried to take things from other films to develop it’s plot, it used those ideas in a combination that worked in a semi original way. The script however is nothing great and it lack character development, but it did manage to be creative in it’s plot. Unlike most horror films at least the script for this film was easy to watch and it had some enjoyable moments.
The performances within this film are so-so. While I can’t say that any particular actor held a better performance over the other, or in any case better. The movie was full of a bunch of no name actors. Hence, for being amateurs they did a good job, but nothing memorable that their characters will be the topic of the next day conversation. The Production values is similar. While the sets and locations seemed to fit the script they were not dressed to make it look like the world was in a verge of chaos. The indoor sets were also not dressed up well enough to make me believe that the characters were living there for a few days either. The make-up effects were a disappointment. The majority of the zombies just looked like humans with blood applied to certain areas of the face and body. Now don’t get me wrong; there were some good effects in the film that involved a lot of gore and the liking of some body parts. They actually looked good, but the lack of make-up on the zombies took away the vibe that these zombies really wanted to eat the characters in the film.
Overall, Days of Darkness is a simple zombie flick that tries to be original with ideas and concepts that we’ve seen in plenty of other horror films before. It does a decent job trying to combine these ideas, but in certain area the film is lacking in what could of easily been a decent horror flick. It’s not a bad little independent films, just don’t expect it to have the production value and greatness of a Romero zombie flick.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
