TADD Day 2 Movie 1 The Dark Hour

OK I know it has been some time since I posted a movie review but am going to try and be better. Day 2 of the TADD and my daughters first of 2 days with 4 movies in 1 day. The first movie The Dark Hour a Spanish film but first the Canadian short film as always before it.

The Canadian short film Under Pressure: A Story of Microscopic Stakes by Daniel Devita and it was very entertaining. An interesting little piece of film shot in what looks like a video tape feel about a Canadian family where the mother gets accidentally shrunk and this causes a major falling out until many years later when the son goes inside his disease riddled father to look for his mother with some interesting consequences. Remember this film makers name as he has a great eye and I think has a future making films.

The Dark Hour is a Spanish movie that was actually made in 2006 and has seen viewings at film festivals but has not secured a major release. The movie is a hybred of science fiction and horror centering around a group of survivors of a nuclear war living underground, scrounging for food, medication, and weapons. There are other things living below with them that only come out during The Cold Hour which is the time when the survivors have to turn off the heat and take refuge in there rooms.

There is an amusing mix of men, women and children that are thrown together from necessity rather than pre-selection. It is never explained why these people are together and what there background story is and this just adds to the dark and dreary back drop of the story. If the world were to end in a final flash of nuclear destruction lets face any survivors would be a haphazard mix of whoever was able to make to shelter.

The main premise of the movie is can children handle the reality of a harsh situation as well as adults and is it fair to shelter them or is it better to have them face reality. The movie is told from the point of view of Jesus' and his obsession with a camcorder and filming everything. The main group of survivors tries to maintain a normal life, they go about a daily routine including school lessons for Jesus and Anna. The one outcast from the main group is Judas who lives alone and entertains the kids with stories of the surface and movies from times past. The movie is very dark and builds in suspense as the groups supplies start to run out and they have to venture out into the areas of the complex controlled by the creatures.

I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys the post-apocalyptical movies but ones that are more centered around the suspense and break down of civilization as opposed to the shoot-em up ones. The ending works well with the movie and will not disappoint.

The trailer is located at the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRVs7vIyoso

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