DAYLIGHT'S END (2016)

Daylight's End (2016)

Summary: Years after a mysterious plague has devastated the planet and turned most of humanity into blood-hungry creatures, a rogue drifter on a vengeful hunt stumbles across a band of survivors in an abandoned police station and reluctantly agrees to try to help them defend themselves and escape to the sanctuary they so desperately need.

Now I'm not really sure what these creatures would be considered. They are kind of like a hybrid version of vampires and the “zombies” from 28 Days Later. They have all the traits of those infected with that rage virus. The virus is transferred in all of the same ways; bite, scratch, fluid transfer (blood in mouth). They kill, but not to feed. They can be killed the same way any human can. Only difference, is they can also be killed by sunlight.

Rourke (Johnny Strong) is a loner who essentially has made himself a hunter. He travels from city to city hunting these creatures. Somewhere around Dallas he meets Sam (Chelsea Edmundson). He group was just ambushed by marauders. She was the only survival and Rourke showed up just in time to save her from being raped. She offered Rourke a trade. If he could take her back to the rest of her group, they would give him gas and ammo. Her group of survivors is lead by former detective Frank Hill (Lance Hendrikson). When they arrive to the base, they have to fight off some creatures to get inside. During this fight, Rourke notices that the Alpha creature is here. He has a history with this alpha and from this point on, his only real concern is taking it out.

The action is almost non stop from beginning to end. And the best part about it is that it's good action sequences. There is no “fluff” scenes where they throw in a bogus fight just to eat up some time. It was all well thought out, well choreographed, and well done.

The acting as well was on point. I can not think of a single character who didn't carry the weight as far as making the story believable. Even the secondary characters who are literally only in the movie for all of a couple of minutes were solid roles. 

The overall plot of the movie isn't the most original thing but how many ways could you possibly spin an apocalyptic war between humans and creatures. The writers definitely made it work for them. And again, making the hybrid creatures did give it a little bit of their own twist to it. They did a good job with character development which added to a lot of the finer plot points in the movie.

The only downside I saw in the movie was I felt that the final battle between Rourke and the Alpha was a bit anti-climatic. It was built up for the whole movie and just didn't quite live up to the hype. Not that it was bad, but I was hoping for so much more.

Despite that, this movie was awesome. Definitely worth checking out.  

                         
reviewed by Bobby