csa-69579
I HATE THESE TYPE OF MOVIES!!!! But this one I am a fond of. It's not like the other typical and predictable movies so it keeps you guessing throughout the story. PLUS!! Samantha Bolter is fine!!… And of course a good actress! I definitely recommend this movie if you are a fan of hers. I need to find out what other movies I can find her in! it was definitely an intriguing film. Even though the film is a bit amateur, every director has his or her start! Dan Rickard tells the story in a way that puts you in the shoes of the main character. He walks you through the story and somehow give you a taste of what it would be like if you were to wake up clueless and afraid. The acting could have been better, but with the budget they had to work with it is quite commendable. If you like zombie movies, you should definitely drop by and take a look! I certainly had no regrets in doing so.
dillon18992
This is a blow by blow review though the first hour is basically the silliest 'fast zombie' movie I've ever seen. The protagonist, who is barely 20 and has a weak, slender build later manages to overpower a soldier armed with an l86(a2?), that's right, he manages to push the barrel up, disarm the soldier (who I'd assume is spec ops and would instantly go for his sidearm or knife), wrestle him to the floor (despite being about half his weight) then strangle him to death then strangle him to death, then runs off ignoring the fact that there's a rifle and lying on the floor right beside him. To summarise the first hour of the movie, this boy (and I mean it when I say it) wakes up on a beach with amnesia (overused) and runs after two people, he shouts for them to wait and despite the infected only really screaming comically running in this the guy out of the two attacks him anyway and then subsequently gets killed. He and the girlfriend? Of dead guy run back to a house filled with hipsters and one self proclaimed hard lad who won't shut up about his biceps. Eventually his (sister? seriously none of this is telegraphed at all to the audience, you're left to assume and hope you're right) somehow (maybe I'll find out in the last half hour of this movie) gets infected and after being taped up, then freed by her brother? Runs around the house trying to kill everyone until they throw her out a window. Now the option of leaving the city and going out to a house in the country (rather than sitting drinking beer until you pass out while playing nice loud music in the middle of a zombie infested city, throwing food at each other and generally getting on like zombie food rather than 'survivors') was on the table in the first 20 minutes but "it's a bit of a hike" despite the roads being filled with cars the only time they leave the house is when they're starving, to go to a supermarket half a mile away when there are houses all around for looting, even when the protagonist takes a rucksack of food off a random dead girl he's scolded with "don't do that, it isn't right" well gee, not like it's zombie apocalypse. It's also worth mentioning that the cameraman is terrible and doesn't seem to understand depth of field, for example; when two people are talking one will be in focus and the other will be horribly blurry. Maybe they wanted this 'unique art- style' but you use depth of field to isolate a character or characters, when there's a dialogue of two people, both should be in focus. So, the hipster squad; chased by a wholly inept military who decide to use a sonic device to lure the zombies out to chase the hipster team down (yet don't seem to use any military tactics like staggered reloads so everyone ends up out of ammo at the same time) or on their fallback position they hadn't rigged any clay more (this whole spelling correction thing drives me crazy when using actual words!) mines prior so naturally the soldier's 'cunning plan' (reminds me of the 'cunning plans' in Blackadder) completely backfires and most, if not all of them get eaten, when they could have just fallen back and flipped a switch. They have Chinooks, they have some expensive sonic zombie horde truck but not basic training or tactics; it's like they were made stupid on purpose, which is probably the case because they're outsmarted by 19-25 year old's at every corner, none with any sort of survival training. Even when the hipster squad decides to light a fire and stay outside for the night all of them go to sleep instead of setting watch schedules. Personally they'd be dead 10 times over if they weren't so amazingly 'lucky'. As well as that, even though the military have choppers, amazing sonic technology zombie horde trucks; they don't seem to have any sort of IR camera (which you can buy as an add-on for your phone for gods sake!) as you could pick up a group of hikers and differentiate from zombies on high res IR rather easy.Yet another one of the hipster squad has died, from a half amputated hand; something that bears mentioning is that the hipster squad don't know how the virus spreads and seem to be immune so at worst this one guy would lose his hand, not his life. It just seems like the developers are throwing twists in to 'make it interesting', sadly this isn't working, it just makes the film seem sillier and sillier as I watch it. The skinny protagonist decides to split up from the hipster squad, surrenders to a soldier as he was given a prototype vaccine and may still be an infected carrier blah blah same old BS is on the ground, still manages to overpower another spec ops soldier; again ignores his rifle and then as the hipster squad magically arrive at their country house he manages to magically tel-e port (Good job spelling correct, maybe you should pick up a dictionary; both clay (no space) more and tel-e (no space, no hyphen) port will be in it, or you know; since reviews are moderated allow 'spelling mistakes' if someone check-boxes them and penalise users who abuse that system) to the beach where he started out, despite it being a two days walk. On this beach he sits down, contemplates life and then walks into the water (with no stones in his pockets) until he is completely submerged, apparently killing himself, when he could have just been shot in the head literally one and a half 'film minutes' ago. Cut to credits.I want my hour and a half back, this film is a terrible copy of 28 days later with a bit of a twist.
Tom Dooley
This is set in Brighton where we meet Dan who has woken up on a beach. He has lost his memory and does not know that some sort of virus has infected most of the population who turn into mentals with a nasty tendency to kill humans. He meets up with some survivors but it soon becomes apparent that the Army are out to get him and will be pretty ruthless in so doing, so his new chums are hardly over impressed with him.What unfolds takes us back to what happened to him and the journey to try to escape. Now this is an independent film but it has excellent sets, some very good acting, excellent CGI for the most part and a very believable script and a fair few extras to bulk out the plot and make it all that more enjoyable.I was not expecting great shakes from this so was really surprised at how much I liked it. It will not be everyone's cup of tea but it can be seen as a bit of mindless fun with a hint at the ever present questions of existentialism. There are obvious comparisons to 'Twenty Eight Days Later' which I enjoyed too, but approach this with an open mind and I hope you will get as much out of this as I did.
emola71
Yes it's a 28 Days Later ripoff. That being said, the low budget quality adds to the greatness of the film.It's hard to create a decent film with no money. Darkest Day does just that.Interesting characters, great filming locations, all for a real low budget. If it had the budget of any other Zombie film it would be as good as the best of them.This is a must see ..especially for those who love indie films, zombie films, low budget but great films.This may be a low budget film, but the story, filming locations, action, plot, violence ...all works. It all works well.
