Days of Darkness [2007] [DVD]

A young couple Steve and Mimi are on a romantic camping holiday(at an ex-military site, how romantic!). After they both drink a little too much bubbly, they both drift into sleep. When they awake the next day, Lin is feeling poorly and they decide to go home. However, they soon come under attack from flesh eating zombies, and after being rescued, they find themselves holed up in an old electrical plant with a dispirate group of fellow survivors. Soon they find out that the main threat may not be the undead at the gates, but the enemy within...
Okay, theres quite a lot that I could criticise this film for. A couple of characters just dissapear never to return, one with a tentacle wrapped round his head. The zombies are a rather ineffectual bunch, mainly just standing at the gates moaning a bit or wandering round aimlessly. Theres some excrutiating dialogue, and some pretty bad acting. However...
I found myself liking the film more and more, as it progressed. The characters I didnt much care for at the beginning I grew to like, I liked the parodic feel of the film as a whole, and then theres that great plot twist halfway through, when we discover just what a zombies guts look like, when one such ghoul is cut up, and our group find far more than they bargained for. Its an offbeat little gem, and whilst it might not satisfy those looking for mucho gut munching, it will please those who are looking for something a little bit different from their zombie fare.
Very enjoyable. 4 out of 5

Well, it's different - you have to give Days of Darkness that much. The zombies on display here may look like your basic stereotypical zombies, but they aren't - just trust me on that. These zombies aren't going to scare anybody, but they're more than capable of eliciting a few "yuck" reactions from viewers - and that turns out to be the film's saving grace. The first half of Days of Darkness is a train wreck in the making, but writer/director Jake Kennedy eventually manages to pull the whole story from the very brink of bad movie infamy. I'm not saying this is a great zombie movie, but it does succeed in hollowing out a nice little niche for itself in the genre - which is quite a feat, in my opinion. The shear weirdness of the story makes Days of Darkness worth watching.

Days of Darkness stumbles badly out of the gate, making the viewer feel as if he/she must have missed a major scene or two at the beginning. After camping out atop a remote hill somewhere, a young couple wake up to find their car covered in a strange dust, and then before you can say "Bob's your uncle," they're being attacked by zombies. Suddenly, a stranger shows up, starts bashing zombies left and right, and then leads our young lovers to a survival headquarters at an abandoned microwave station house of some kind. There, they meet up with quite a collection of characters. Besides your basic stereotypical characters ("bully with a gun" fellow, "preacher man" guy, the "tough chick"), there's also a quite outspoken former adult movie actress and her teenaged virgin daughter. Naturally, they all spend a lot of time arguing about what to do. At this point, about a third of the way through the film as a whole, I must admit I was not thinking kind thoughts about Days of Darkness. Not only were the characters ignoring the heck out of me, I was still waiting for an explanation as to what set the zombie apocalypse in motion. (Actually - having read the plot summary - I knew it started with the crash or near collision of a comet with Earth, but I was still expecting a little elaboration on the subject.)

Finally, at about the midpoint of the movie, things finally got a little more interesting. Some really unusual - and pretty nasty - things happen to the bodies of these zombies, things that made me say "That is just wrong" more than once. And it's not just the zombies - really weird things are happening to some of the survivors, as well. This definitely ain't George Romero's dawn, day, or night of the living dead. Be prepared for a lot of bickering among the survivors, especially early on before their numbers start dwindling. Slogging through it won't be easy, but it will all be worth it once you reach the point where the examination of dead zombie bodies begins.

I have to subtract some points for all of the "this movie sucks" moments early on, but even a day after watching Days of Darkness I have to admit that I actually sort of enjoyed the overall experience. Say what you will about the dialogue and plot (and, in all honesty, there's plenty to say about both), but you have to give writer/director Jake Kennedy some credit for daring to make a different kind of zombie film.

Days of darkness is no high budget blockbuster, but if you can get if for less than £2.00 (as its worth no more) it's definately worth a watch on a wednesday night when there is sod all on t.v. As a massive zombie film fan there were some impressive scenes at times, one I can remember was where some of the characters drive up to a lock up and there are loads of zombies at the gates, also a strobing zombie attack was pretty cool. Despite a few impressive scenes, based on the rest of the film I can only think these were lucky fluke as this film has one of the worst computer generated meteor hitting the eath scenes (spectrum graphics is all I can compare it to), It has the worst acting I have seen in a while with a lot of mumbling (reminded me of me when I was about 5 trying to be clint eastwood when playing cowboys with my mates). The gore scenes are often cheap and completely none contact, I remember a scene where two guys start smacking thin air with metal poles and a zombie falls on the floor, they must have created ultra sonic waves or somthing because you hear something hit the zombie but its clearly not one of the poles.There is lots of spinning and wobbeling the camera around the actors to try to create cool camera scenes (it did't work well), the director didn't have a clue! I spent the whole film taking the micky out of it which I havent done with a film in a while and for this reason I enjoy'd the experience, me and my mates found it quite fun. I hate to spoil a film but the actors and director had allready done that so we made light of the situation. Despite my put downs this film is still a zombie film with pleanty of flesh eating and for this reason I could not award it less than 3 stars, one to watch if you intend to watch as many zombie films as possible before you die(like I do)or if you can get it for less than £2, though im sure it will be on zone horror by the end of the year!