The Darkest Dawn

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.

Genuinely one of the worst films I have ever seen. No logic, awful script, terrible acting, horrible direction.

Normally I'm down for a B movie sci-fi but this film has no redeeming factors. Just awful. 1/10 because I can't vote zero.

I think that 20 years of POV films is enough. The human race is about to disappear and the girl has cold blood to record every single passage of her day. On the other hand the script is nothing new and the film is too dark. It's difficult to say anything good about this dull movie.

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.

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.