DAYS OF DARKNESS

Days of Darkness is Jake Kennedy's first feature length, and what a straight first attempt it is. I was not expecting much, I had visions of the recent shoddy zombie flick Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, cheaper than a fish supper in 1988 and as terrible as a Troma film done on the fly. But I was pleasantly surprised by this end-of-the-world-is-nigh zombie flick. I am biased, my favourite genre of horror film is zombie…

Steve (Travis Brorsen) and Mimi (Roshelle Pattison) return to civilization from a romantic camping trip. Something's not right. There's dust on their car, a comet has hit the Earth, why is that man walking funny towards them? Only five minutes in and we get our first zombie attack. Steve is bitten but they are both rescued and hold up in a derelict army compound.

The base has a few survivors, they argue constantly amongst themselves and don't seem to know what's going on. There's a religious nut who looks a bit like Crispin Glover, a porn star (and daughter), a farmer come actor (who takes the NOTD's Harry Cooper role), a salesman, a homosexual, a butch girl, and of course a marine.

They try to survive but continue to argue and occasionally let in some zombies into the compound by mistake obviously causing havoc. Steve finds out that Mini is pregnant but they never made whoopee before, hmmm that's weird.

They eventually realise that the zombies are losing their balls (quite literally) and their reproductive organs are being replaced by weird foetuses. They perform a DIY autopsy on one of the zombies and discover that creatures are controlling their minds. Ah ha!

Is it a conspiracy by aliens or is it an extraterrestrial parasite? Rid the world of humans and use them as reproductive vessels, perfect plan.

The film inevitably continues with the remaining survivors trying to save themselves, and how they can possibly stop the zombies and aliens.

This film has such a ridicules story line that I believe no one has ever had the balls (that's a pun by the way) to try it, until now! Apparently the film was made as comedy sci-fi horror although the comedy is a little lacking to be classed as one. Think of Romero's trilogy, Night of the Comet, and Slither, and then you'll get an idea on what Kennedy was trying to do but with a tiny budget. The story concentrates on the human reaction of being put in an isolated situation, a lot like Day of the Dead, and it has the crazy sci-fi theme like Slither and Night of the Comet.

For sure, Days of Darkness is chock-o-block with linear acting, a silly storyline, and a low budget. But there is very little modern day CGI, it's fresh, enjoyable, and so ridiculous that it is fun. I recommend that we keep an eye out for Brit filmmaker Jake Kennedy and any new projects he shines us with, well, as long as they have really daft story lines like this one!

Revolver Entertainment seems to be churning out clunkers and decent flicks, this film sits in the middle; it's not decent but it's not bad.

Not much to mention about the actual Revolver Entertainment DVD. It's a simple region 2 disk with a trailer and gives us the option on a couple of Surround Sound options.

I recommend this movie to all zombie fans alike, but if you hate zombies and stupid sci-fi, then stay far far away!!

Review by: Broonage