Darkest Day

Darkest day tells the story of a group of survivors from a nondescript plague. This plague converts infected humans into mindless zombie like murderers that love a good fight and the taste of human flesh. So we have the surviving people living, a group of rejects and odd people. They journey around a hellish world of these monsters, army people and maybe even something else.... all trying as hard as they can to survive this world and live safe. Sounds fresh and new... that does

Ok, it is best to get to the point on this film. It is the sort of film you have seen before, with added visual effects that are well worth your time watching.Why you may ask is it so good? For a budget that was almost miniscule in comparison to Hollywood,it is clean and imaginative. The individual pieces of effects interlaced with the narrative are superb. They add tones of ideas that could be developed and could add layers. Now these soft touches allow for the world or space of the film to come fully to life. Life within such a film project, script or idea is sadly lacking in many works, this is due to money often. Here it works very well and I have to give a massive thumbs up! This is also mixed with superb shot choices that seem to suggest Dan Rickard has an eye for cinema visuals and settings that might lead him away from horror and maybe into social commentary or Melodrama. The director deserves not only a thumbs up to his direction on the visual effects and shot selection but also the pacing of performances and the editing. Both swirl together and help the story be carried along. Swift editing of action and cohesive dramatic linking of the story show that this has been made by a good judge of film language and audience need.

It falls down in places though and these need to be pointed out. Rickard is the main lead and he has an engaged intense thought in his acting. That said it seems all the other actors are over shadowed by this ego sometimes. The script is not great but does what is expected. The introduction of the army helps keep us a foot but then it feels done before. This is something that should have been dealt with earlier say in pre production and than it would have saved me from having to be a little down on it.