Daylight's End

Back again kiddies! Yeah you missed me. I can just sense these things. So I held a poll on two movies both post apocalyptic and apparently plague based zombies. Clearly I won? I guess. So today we concentrate to Daylight's End.

Winter Soldier?  Bucky?  BUCKY!!!

Directed by indie director William Kaufman (The Prodigy, Sinners and Saints,The Hit List, One in the Chamber, Jarhead 3: The Siege and Murder Made Me Famous)we open with an out stretched road POV shot, I am reminiscent of George Miller's Mad Max. A lone wanderer (Cue Fallout theme) makes his way to an abandoned gas station in a steel meshed covered Plymouth. I think it might be a Superbird. He makes his way in for supplies when he comes across a massive freezer, which he shoots letting in sunlight to fry the zombie/vampire? So these blood thirsty creatures are bringing me back to Last Man on Earth or I Am Legend. A gathering of exposition and visuals throughout the credits opening explains the outbreak of this apocalypse.

He heads into a wayward, abandoned house and cleans house. By himself. Three of these dead bastards were kind of terrifying and jump scares were limited. THANK GOD!

On his travels he sees a police squad car be accosted by the vambies. Zompires?

Anywho, the contents of the car is people and has been murdered and closer examination the group is actually armed humans. Our mysterious stranger dispatches the marauders efficiently.

Well it's no Mad Max ride, but not bad.

Our bad ass protagonist helps the lone survivor, Sam (Chelsea Edmundson of Killer Eye: Halloween Haunt, Camera Phone, Gangster Squad, Bloodsucka Jones, Isolation and Joe Bonamassa: Drive) who invites her savior named Rourke (Johnny Strong of Get Carter, Black Hawk Down, The Fast and the Furious, Sinners and Saints and Cold Brook) for safe harbor along with food, supplies and ammo. A girl the groupof marauders abducted, Annabelle (Farrah White of Miss Congeniality, Single and Dealing with It, Hate Crime, By the Devil's Hands, The Locker, Lunch Break and About Mom and Dad...) is lacking oars in the waters so of course Sam wants to take her along. They hop in his car and make it deep into the midtown of once was Dallas. Um go Cowboys? They narrowly make their way into the old police station.

Journeying in the police station, Rourke encounters leader of this group, Bishop himself (Lance Henriksen of The Terminator, Aliens, Near Dark, Pumpkinhead, Millennium, Scream 3, AVP: Aliens vs Predator and Hellraiser: Hellworld) known as Frank Hill. With a massive steel sliding door keeps the zompires at bay. Naturally Frank, his boy Ethan (Louis Mandylor of Martial Law, Price of Glory, Relic Hunter, Sinners and Saints, Sorority Party Massacre, Jet Set and Code of Honor) and former Dallas Cop Chris (Hakeem Kae-Kazim of Grange Hill, Critical Assignment, Hotel Rwanda, Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End, The Jinn and The Bourne Conspiracy) don't trust outsider Rouke, so they lock him in a cell, after confiscating his weapons. Dude, trust me. This cat could snap necks pretty easily but Rourke agrees to it.

The Vambies (Zompires?) get around at night but seem to actually doing some rudimentary thinking instead of just being scavengers or hyenas on the kill. They seem to follow a beast of a man known only as the Alpha (Former UFC fighter Krzystof Sosynski of Here Comes the Boom, Tapped Out, Hidden in the Woods, Daylight's End and Logan).  Evolution occurs everywhere, folks and even in disease and this big boy is the apex predator. 

Jeez, does no one sew in the Apocalypse?

 Frank realizes it's only a matter of time before these bad boys and girls come smashing in and slaughter them all. Frank tells Rourke they need to regroup, grab some wheels and get everyone out of the area. Rouke is more determined to eliminate the threat of the Alpha during the day. Clearly something personal between the two, not that Rourke is forthcoming with that info.

Keep in mind, the budget is not huge, the musical score is done by our protagonist, and we have a very capable cast and crew. Yes, yes this is YET another post apocalypse but there is nowhere near the gore and rape scenarios of the Mad Max, 2019: Fall of New York or Book of Eli. While this is not an original idea, I like what you take away from this film.

The writer Chad Law (Hero Wanted, The Hit List, 6 Bullets, Isolation, Jarhead 3: The Seige, Beyond Valkyrie: Dawn of the 4^th Reich and Sinners and Saints: Vengeance) has a solid understanding of Action genre and Stuntman/fight choreographer Ron Balicki (Barb Wire, Escape from L.A., Point Doom, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, The Prodigy, The Sensei and The Dark Path Chronicles) broke down weapons handling, hand-to-hand and knife fights pretty damn well. The choreography feels like the Bourne series or Burn Notice...granted with zombies and scumbag humans against our survivors.

Strong's physical performance alone is worth going on about. The guy is doing Urban Warfare, sweeping through room to room and putting as little weight on his feet to give his position away. The camera captures all of this and it feels real. Continuity goofs? Well a few. Car windows were shot out and then reappeared whole, some magazines seem to have infinite ammo and not enough reload time between rounds and for some reason Frank's stirring speech, his hat kept disappearing and reappearing throughout it. That being said, this is a decent flick. Plenty of action and story to keep most folk interested and yes ladies I am sorry to say at least one rape scenario but no skin, just the fear.   An attempted one if you will, and our hero goes sick house on these skells.

It's graphic, got very few lull moments and keeps a good steady pace. Yeah I was impressed and I say, "Go Indie film makers!"

THE CUBS WON THE PENNANT!!! ANARCHY IN THE STREETS!!!