The Darkest Dawn

So many positive reviews here on IMDb I thought I have to give it a try but I was sceptic because most positive reviews came from the UK. And the trailer looked promising too so I tried to watch this low budget flick.

London has fallen into the hands of aliens so it's up to two sisters to survive the attack. The first 10 minutes looked great and even as it shows that the effects were CGI due the shaky cams and the attack it looked rather above mediocre. But once they ran from London they go out into the countryside. And from there on this flick falls like London just did.

It's waiting until the last 15 a 20 minutes before the real action comes back in with another space ship coming around. Being a bit of a found-footage I can understand the use of shaky cams and distorted images due the alien signals. But what the hell was that in between the two attacks. The fast forward was close in hands.

Promising beginning, rather boring and a great ending makes it simply hard to watch. Even as you could see it was made with addiction and dedication to the genre the limited budget destroyed the flick.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1,5/5 Comedy 0/5

I must admit, I'm a sucker for most found footage films. So whenever I come across one I've not seen (or even heard of) before, I have to give it a try.

Almost immediately I wanted to give up. The acting isn't great, but that's expected from these low budget films. My issue was how quickly everyone gives up. The mum goes to work and before it even gets dark, the rest of the family are sobbing for her and the main character is saying her goodbyes to her on the camera. Also, on the second day, the government announcement says that the world would surrender right now if they knew how.

The CGI is pretty good to be fair, other than the plane crash scene ... the perspective was horribly wrong. The plane crashed on the road a few meters from the camera.

Ashens was definitely unexpected. I've watched him for years on Youtube, so seeing him in a film other than The Proxy or the Gamechild was a nice surprise.

I tried to finish it, I really did, but I couldn't. It's not even a full length film and although there were fast action shots every 30 seconds, it felt agonisingly slow.

I generally like this genre but to do it right usually takes a decent budget, believeable actors, and logical plot line. The protagonist's video recorder must have had a nuclear fuel cell as its battery to last so long. Within days all that a huge mansion had in it to eat was a single apple. The human populous began to turn in upon itself almost immediately. One accurate hit from a tank could bring down a ship the size of a super star destroyer and the list of WTF moments goes on.

I added a star because they showed a CGI shot of 20 Fenchurch Street (the walkie talkie building) with a huge gash in it. That tower is a monstronsity so props for that. Otherwise, skip this one unless you are super bored.

Found footage ... and a sequel too. And yet, if you did like the first one, you should like this too. It's actually slightly better. Though the effects are still very visible and I guess some would say bad (I guess budget wise there was nothing more they could get out of it).

This time around we get new characters and a dad that can't act if his life depended on it - or someone else's life for that matter. Anyway, that on the nose "acting" is bad, but let's say you don't have to endure a lot of it, because "drama" (as in Family Drama) is thankfully short, before we get to the meat of things ... the horror, action and science fiction of it

The Darkest Dawn is a Brit, B grade, alien apocalypse flick.

Its a not too shabby effort. The acting is alright and some of the special effects, whilst, very obviously CGI, actually do fit the overall, "end of the world", feel of the film quite well.

What does show are the clear budgetary limitations. Rather "ho hum" sets and weapons that look, for the most part, like badly dated, army surplus.

The scripting for this film could have been better too. The character narrative, is, at times, a bit cheesy. The loving family thing is over cooked but mercifully, does not last, as the aliens quickly arrive on the scene.

All in all, not a bad effort from a film with B credentials. On that basis a six out of ten from me.