Tuesday 25 November 2014

After Dusk They Come (2009)



In addition to having three titles of its own (the one above plus The Tribe and The Forgotten Ones), this film also has a remake.  Yes, a remake, despite only coming out in 2009.  The remake was released a year later, and is variously known as The Lost Tribe or Primevil (sic).

Apparently the reason for the rapid remake was that the production company was unhappy with this version of the film, though that didn't stop them from authorising a DVD release (the fact that it features Firefly's Jewel Staite and some guy from the Twilight films may have influenced their decision).

Ironically, the remake actually has a lower IMDB rating than this film, suggesting that the producers - though smart enough to realise that this isn't very good - weren't smart enough to work out what went wrong.

Here's a hint for them: it's the script.

What we've got here is basically The Descent, if it (a) didn't have an all female cast and (b) was not very good.  As with that film we have a group of holidaymakers with some simmering tensions between them; we have an accident that leaves them stranded in a place they're not supposed to be; and we have a degenerate race of semi-humanoid monsters that hunt them.  Heck, the hunters even share the 'functionally blind and hunt by sound' schtick of the ones from The Descent.

The faults of the film are many, and they start with the fact that four of the five holidaymakers are deeply unlikable.  Even the fifth (Staite's character) is less sympathetic than they intend her to be, though once put next to the others she's so clearly the Final Girl she may as well have it tattooed on her forehead.

This of course leads to a complete lack of tension in the film, since you know exactly who is going to die and frankly you're largely looking forward to them not befouling the screen any longer.  Pretty soon we're down to just Staite's character, which leads into a tedious and unconvincing boss battle with the 'alpha creature'.  Spoilers: Staite wins.

Unless you're just really, really keen to see Kayleigh from Firefly in a low rent creature feature, skip this one: it's not even so bad it's good.

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