REVIEW: “The Darkest Hour”

Swirls of golden light fall from the sky outside a Moscow nightclub, appearing like beautiful fireflies but capable of disintegrating anyone in their path.

So begins The Darkest Hour, now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

The scenery is incredible, with ominous gray skies appearing behind beautiful Russian buildings, including the impressive Kremlin.  And with the recent “firefly” massacre, the once-bustling city is an ash-covered barren wasteland.  The five main characters are able to avoid the initial carnage, but with nearly everyone else gone and no idea what these creatures are or what they want, they struggle to figure out what to do next.  To add to the direness of the situation, the mysterious invaders are capable of becoming invisible.

The very beginning of the film focuses on who these characters are and why they are in Moscow, but this is ultimately unimportant.  They are one-dimensional with names like Sean (Emile Hirsch), Ben (Max Minghella), and Natalie (Olivia Thirlby).  This doesn’t really detract from the very real danger of the enemy, though, since this is ultimately a story about the world on the brink of destruction and not interpersonal relationships.

With a running time of only 89 minutes, this is a short horror/sci-fi film, and it was much better than I expected.  Mostly I was intrigued by what the creatures really were and their motives for destroying Earth, as well as the empty Russian landscape.  Once the useless character introductions were over, the movie kept up a pretty rapid pace.  It’s not epic cinema, but I think it’s a decent popcorn film and certainly worth a look.

Special features on the DVD and Blu-Ray include “The Darkest Hour: Survivors” – Follow the rebel resistance in an all-new short film, Deleted & Extended Scenes, “The Darkest Hour: Visualizing an Invasion”, and Audio Commentary with the Director Chris Gorak.