Rent The Dark Hour (2006)

Definitely worth a look! - The Dark Hour review by Kurtz

This Spanish film documents four days in the lives of a tiny band of humans who have survived global war and are now fending off attacks from “The Strangers”, zombified carriers of a deadly plague. To add to their problems they suffer from the attentions of a further, possibly alien, foe which is a large green glowing special effect roaming the corridors of their hideout at night. “The Dark Hour” is hardly original ( it wears its allegiance to “Blair Witch”, “Alien” and “The Omega Man” with pride), but it’s very atmospheric and although the human characters are fairly one-dimensional sci-fi/horror staples, e.g. kid, troubled teen, mother figure, sensitive type, viper in nest, grizzled veteran, etc. the actors do a good job portraying the mounting dread as their time seems to be running out.

Mild spoilers follow ... - The Dark Hour review by NP

The Dark Hour is a Spanish film which explores an unknown dystopian society.

It’s a risk featuring a child actor in a dominant role in a film; the child’s acting maybe be adequate but not convince, or worse, he can produce a precocious, obnoxious performance which can lose the character sympathy. Luckily, Omar Muñoz is both convincing and appealing, which is refreshing, especially as his character Jesus is written as a mischievous scamp.

Jesus could be seen as the eyes of the viewer. He lives with a group of what appear to be survivors of a holocaust which may or may not have wiped out the rest of mankind. Their world is a sealed bunker of sorts. It seems to be infiltrated by ghost-like mutants, necessitating regular curfew. The relationships between the others is nicely outlined by Jesus, who seems intent to record a video-diary – however, this is not a found footage film, for reasons that become clear at the story’s end.

The bleak setting is beautifully conveyed, however the lack of apparent answers until the very end leads to the story dragging a little occasionally. The carefully built-up atmosphere is stiflingly grim, and there is a genuine sense of hope when the remaining characters manage to escape the bunker … or do they?

I won’t give away the final twist, which is tremendous and haunting. There are elements of zombie films here, although I would cautiously suggest this is better than most. It branches out into sci-fi territory, but is assuredly a claustrophobic horror film.