The Darkest Hour AKA Speckles of Light Here and There

The Darkest Hour Movie Poster

Shirley Holmes 2 was on the agenda, but sadly the tickets for the film were sold out- that's what you get for not booking in advance. On the other hand, we'd met up to watch a film and that's what we had to do- especially since we had free tickets without much time left on their expiry. As a result we got to watch a movie we normally wouldn't have bothered with: The Darkest Hour.


Here's what happens: Two Americans guys fly to Moscow to promote their new creation. A Finnish guy gives them trouble along the way. They meet two other American girls in a pub. Then real trouble comes along, initially taking the form of a rather dull monotone Aurora Borealis, and after that, as over-sized fireflies with voracious appetite and a nasty disposition.

Sound familiar? It's actually rather similar to so many other horror/alien invasion/zombie apocalypse films out there. Just cite one, and odds are it'll be better than The Darkest Hour. That being said, it wasn't that bad. Well, it was bad, but just not bad to make me want to run out of the cinema vomiting profanities or bang head my head on the seat in front of me for wasting my time- though the fact that I didn't have to fork out any money to watch it might have influenced my opinion. Anyway, it was alright. Funny, even, in it's lameness.

Spoilers start here. The aliens are invisible, and hide by using some sort of radioactive frequency (Shield) that flickers now and then. Near the end of the movie our plucky team finds a way to crack that shield, and we get to see what the aliens look like on the inside... probably shouldn't have bothered... they weren't very impressive. They have lousy senses, only being able to sense electromagnetic waves/radiation (Whatever, I don't remember the scientific terms used). In other words, they wouldn't stand much of a chance against zombies (Essentially animated dead meat).

The team runs around scared witted (Note: as opposed to witless, as some of them seem to be able to analyse the invisible threats), running from one point to another. First they meet and old lady, who tells them to sod off. Next they go shopping in a mall- Prada anyone? Then sometime at night they see the Light shining from above, and a crackpot gifts them a rather dubious looking Penultimate Weapon. A kid tags along, and people die. The annoying panic-attack girl dies, and everyone in the cinema sighs in relief. Finally they meet the A-Team, who take them to the nuclear powered Moby Dick.

Typical B-grade film. It was bad, just not bad enough for me to hate it. It had the possibility of being a rather good film, in fact. To tell the truth, my major gripe with the film was though it was set in Russia, the only thing remotely Russian about it was the scenery. The film could have been set in any other city and it would have gone the same way.

On to the science of the film- at one point, the team were able to hide from the aliens by sliding under a car. Apparently the car acted as a sort of Faraday's Cageeeee... Oops, my bad. I fell into a plot hole. So, why didn't they save themselves the trouble and just crawl under cars for the entirety of their journey instead?

I've run out of things to say. Like the masters of shameless clicheism say, 'a picture is worth a thousand words', so here goes:

Even the workers rarely see it.

Free movie tickets, discounted popcorn and drinks. No wonder we all came out with stupid grins on our faces.