Tweet
Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: November 13, 2012.
Director: Douglas Aarniokoski
Cast: Shawn Ashmore, Ashley Bell, Michael Eklund, Cory Hardrict, Dominic Monaghan
Year: 2011
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Douglas Aarniokoski's film The Day is a sort of post apocalyptic take on the survivalist horror movie that's been picked up for distribution by none other than WWE Films who have, through a deal with Anchor Bay, unreleased it on Blu-ray and DVD.
When the movie begins, all we really know is that 'something' has happened and that society has crumbled. Cities are in shambles, people are going nuts. We follow a group of five survivor types lead by a guy named Rick (Dominic Monaghan) and comprised of Rick's girlfriend Shannon (Shannyn Sossamon), Adam (Shawn Ashmore), Henson (Cory Hardrict) and Mary (Ashley Bell) who are intent on guarding two jars of seeds no matter what it takes. Given that the five are wandering around heavily armed, that can and does include killing other people who may pose a threat to those seeds, though we learn early on that they don't have tons of ammunition left.
As a storm rolls in, the group finds an abandoned farmhouse to take shelter in. Henson is getting sick and thankfully they manage to find some food in the house, which seems to be completely empty and unguarded. Of course, it'd be a boring movie if that were the case and as this isn't a boring movie, at least not by this writer's standards, that means that someone or something must obviously be paying attention to the group. Enter a cabal of cannibals lead by 'The Father' (Michael Eklund), a messiah of sorts to the cannibals who intend to make the group of five their next meal.
Grim both thematically and visually, The Day doesn't really do a whole lot in terms of character development and instead puts us smack dab into the middle of a lousy situation that's about to get a whole lot lousier. The movie was made with a modest budget and this shows in some of the effects used in the movie, specifically where CGI is used - it looks fake and it hurts the movie - but it goes at a good pace and makes its central group of five just interesting enough that we want to see how this all plays out.
The dialogue is sometimes a bit heavy handed and almost too much in how depressed it gets. Nobody in the movie has any happiness for the most part, all are depressed and down about the state of the world. We can understand why this is but it comes close to hurting the story, though to the credit of the cast they handle their parts well across the board. Some tense action and a moderate amount of gore shake things up though, as this is a pretty violent film that occasionally wallows in excess. As the expected amount of drama arises between some of the central players, the antagonists launch their attack and everything comes to a boil. It's a lean, well acted movie that is not without its problems but one that should at least manage to hold the interest of those who appreciate this type of thing. It may not be the most original picture ever made but it's pretty well done.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Day looks about as good as it should on Blu-ray, framed here at 1.85.1 widescreen and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Detail is pretty solid and black levels are good. Colors are accurate during the brighter scenes but there aren't a lot of those and much of the movie has been sapped of brighter hues resulting in a movie that's often times pretty bleak looking. This is in keeping with the tone of the film and it more or less works in its favor. Color tweaking aside, skin tones look good, nice and natural, and there are no issues with compression artifacts to note. This feels like an accurate representation of what the filmmakers were going for here.
The main audio option is a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD mix in the film's original English language, though an alternate Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track is also provided, again, in English with removable subtitles in English SDH and Spanish. No complaints here, really. If the audio isn't the most immersive it's definitely solid, particularly during the action scenes. Dialogue stays clear and there are some very effective moments that use the surrounds to nice effect. The levels are well balanced and as you'd expect from a brand new movie like this there are no problems with hiss or distortion.
The main extra is a commentary track with director Douglas Aarniokoski who is joined by producer Guy Danella and writer Luke Passmore. Between the three participants we get a pretty insightful look into putting this project together, from the conceptual phase through the production phase and then into post production. The trio talks about casting the picture, the themes of the story, express their admiration for the actors and actresses involved and more. It's a well paced track that covers pretty much all the bases you'd expect it to.
Aside from that we get a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Anchor Bay properties, menus and chapter stops. As this is a DVD Combo Pack release, a standard definition DVD is also included, its contents are otherwise the same.
The Final Word:
A decent, well paced and tense post apocalyptic thriller, The Day gets a solid Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack release from Anchor Bay that provides the film in very nice shape with a decent group commentary track as well.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
