I normally refuse to review any film that is shown online, simply because there are way to many of them to review and most of them are crap anyway, however “The Day They Came Back” was written and directed by a really good friend of mine; Scott Goldberg. Scott started out his film career a few years ago and I actually associate produced and acted in his first film called “Dead End Massacre” (Now know as the short film: “Sticks and Stones” which I actually helped Scott pick that title). Anyway with myself being busy buying a house and getting ready to get married and all I was unable to help him make “The Day They Came Back”, but did manage to read the first draft of the script, before they began shooting. I’ll admit that I did not really care much for the first draft of the film, but know it was a work in progress. Anyway besides Scott and I being good buddies I told him I’d be honest about my review of the film.
“The Day They Came Back” is just another independent zombie film. It has a lot of Romero influence in it, and story wise is very similar to “Day of the Dead” with a cover-up situation which some might relate to the “Return of the Living Dead” films. The story however is isolated to a small town area surrounding an abandoned Military compound where secret experiments took place. (Kind of like “Resident Evil”). The story follows a young man just trying to pick up his girlfriend when the living dead attack, along with his friends and the girls little brother they flee into the woods towards the compound where a group of soldiers are holding up, fight off the living dead. It is during this scene where I gain so much respect for Goldberg who as I know is never afraid to use as much gore as possible as we see a young kid get ripped a part by the zombies. This was my favorite moment of the film, it’s something that would be real a life situation if such an event where to happen, for this I give Scott credit for not sugar coating anything. Anyway, from there we are tossed back and forth between what took place that day and the survivor of the day in a dark room speaking with a military official. I don’t want to give away the ending, but you can watch the film by clicking on the link above, and it’s for free as well.
The script is alright, it could of been written a lot tighter and the jumping between scenes did get annoying and kind of lost my attention at times. It also felt hard to follow, and the problem I felt was that being a short film there was to much to explain in such a short period of time that it took away from the story. However being a indie zombie film you need to expect it to have it flaws. However Scott has a great eye when it comes to shooting, his shots are some of the best eye candy I’ve ever seen in an indie film. There are some really awesome visual shots in this film, which are hard to come by on no budget horror flicks. I have to say the bulk of me actually giving this film three stars falls on the fact that the shots alone made it worth watching.
As far as the acting goes, it’s kind of half and half on one side the actors seemed to be having a good time and worked well with the script and direction they were given, on the other hand when it came to scenes that involved increased dialogue ands some ad-libbing involved, I felt some of the actors lost their sense of character. This is something that I myself tend to always look way to much into when watching a film, mainly because I edited a few features that I produced and tend to be anal about actors who lose character. The extra’s who did the zombie acting did a great job, and I know this is probably because Scott like to act like a zombie all the time and probably held training classes at his house.
As far as special effects go, the film has some make-up effects that give you a feel and look of the zombies in the original Romero “Dawn of the Dead”. Their are a lot of cool body rips and nasty blood shooting bites. Their pretty dam good for an indie film. I think the great lighting and editing also helped make them look a bit more believable.
Overall I found this to be a pretty good attempt at breaking into the zombie genre for Scott Goldberg, for a budget of less than three thousand dollars, you have to admit it’s not a bad job at all. There is a great chose of locations, set design and shots. However the story could of been tighter. On a small note you may notice that the Military officer questioning the young man is none other than Paul Kratka of Friday the 13th: Part 3 fame. If you’d like to watch “The Day They Came Back” just visit Scott Goldberg Films by clicking the link above.
– Horror Bob
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- 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
