The Darkest Dawn is a British ScifFi horror film available exclusively online, which makes it slightly unusual. Chloe Murdock (Bethan Leadley) is given a camcorder for her 16th birthday and the aspiring filmmaker soon start filming everything and everything. Events soon take a dark turn with reports on the news of an explosion in the small town of Hungerford in southern England. As it’s “half way across the country”, Chloe’s mother goes to work as normal, not realising that it’s the start of an alien invasion. As civilisation starts to unfold and the death toll rises, Chloe and older sister Sam (Cherry Wallis) are left forming uneasy alliances with anyone prepared to help them.
There’s a lot about The Darkest Dawn that sounds wrong. It’s low-budget, has a young director and co-writer (Drew Casson), is made by studio that’s aimed at millennials, is released straight to download and features a cast made of YouTube stars. I knew it could be a disaster, but I was open-minded enough to click on the trailer and it looked like the sort of film I’d watch. As the trailer was on YouTube, my eyes could not help spotting the trailer ratings, which were slightly positive overall, and the comments, which ranged from the jaded generic “not another found footage film” to the surreal “what a redneck accent” (seriously, if that’s a current YouTube meme I don’t know, please let me know), I was aware that The Darkest Dawn would not be to everybody’s liking. Not being one to be too swayed by the opinions of others, I chose to watch it and I’m pleased I did.
The two found footage elephant in the room questions are answered. Why is someone still filming in such a dire situation and where do they get the battery power from? Question 2, solar power. Question 1, Chloe explains it in a message to her mother, saying she wants to show her how strong she can be, but it’s also a coping method where she’s in denial and desperately hopes she’ll be reunited with her mother one day. Those scenes have to be in there to stop people complaining, and they were there with a fairly light touch so I didn’t feel like the proverbial elephant has decided to sit on my lap and slap me with his trunk to force the point home.
Talking of subtlety, something I liked about the style is that it’s low on exposition. At times, there is almost a jump between scenes as if 30 seconds of footage was accidentally edited out, and this is a good thing. Early in the film after Chloe’s mother goes to work, the next scene shows her father on the phone to the police giving a description and saying that he’s tried calling her. It’s obvious Chloe’s mother has gone missing without needing to spell it out, leaving the audience to do a bit of work. This added to the realism, as it shows Chloe isn’t filming absolutely everything, but it’s enough to tell us that things are getting bad in the world.
The CGI was decent TV quality (we’ve all seen the Tiger in the Walking Dead) and I imagine that has a much higher budget. The acting was very good on the whole. Director, cowriter and actor Drew Casson puts in a convincing performance and Cherry Wallis is solid and accomplished on her acting debut. Bethan Leadley is also making her acting debut and gives an impressive understated and believable performance that helps keep the film together. I expect to being seeing more of her in the future. Some praise should also be given for the use of two female protagonists in the main rolls. Joss Whedon would be proud. They young cast gives The Darkest Dawn an almost coming-of-age feel set against the background of an alien invasion.
I found many positives in the Darkest Dawn even though it’s not the happiest of films. The price of £10 to buy a film that’s around 75 minutes long might put some people off, and if you don’t like found footage films or young people doing things this probably isn’t the film for you. Perhaps it would have been a more polished film if everyone involved had a bit more experience and the budget had been a little higher, but that’s the sort of thing you could say about the early work of many actors, directors, musicians, writers, etc. Maybe the slightly rough edges gave me a nostalgic memory of classic British ScfFi, but I liked it. Digital label Wildseed Movies describe themselves as producing “punky genre feature films”. This draws a parallel to punk rock – some people just don’t get punk but others do. For me, punk rock will always be better than dubstep. If you don’t like the trailer of The Darkest Dawn then it’s probably not the film for you but I know a lot of people are going to like it.
