Ever since seeing the first Mad Max movie, I have been an enthusiastic follower of all things post apocalyptic. No, I am not a guy that would like the world to end, I like life a little bit too much for that, thank you very much. But I do love movies, books, games and tv shows set in settings that show the end times, especially if they are done well. It is a very popular setting, as we currently have a lot of things that feature the end of days in one way or another. I saw the trailer of Daylight’s End about a week ago, and as it featured Lance Henriksen, one of my favorite, and if you ask me most underrated actors of Hollywood, it definitely had my interest. As luck would have it, it showed up in my local dvd shop yesterday, and as the pricetag was pretty low, I bought it immediately.

Daylight’s End tells the tale of the lone warrior Rourke, who drives around the wastelands of America in a beat up car. The world has come to an end, and what is left of humanity tries to survive a plague that has turned people into vampires. (and not zombies for a change). Rourke has turned bitter after the loss of his wife, and is out for revenge on the creature that killed her. One day he comes across a woman who is in the middle of an attack by a couple of human thugs. After saving her, she asks him if he can accompany her back to her compound where she and another group of survivors try to make a stand against the vampires. Upon returning, Rourke meets up with the leader of the group a man called Frank. When an Alpha vampire makes it appearance, things become very grim indeed. Rourke thinks the only way for the group to survive is to take out the Alpha on his own turf, but Frank has other ideas. With night closing in, both men will have to find a way to work together, or the end will be there, in more ways than one.

A couple of years ago I saw a briljant post apocalyptic vampire movie called Stakeland. (If you have not yet seen that one, track it down, it is very good). This movie, though not as good as the former, reminds me of it in a lot of ways. Daylight’s End is a pleasant surprise. There are a lot of well executed action sequences and some great performances by the actors. Lance Henriksen is always just a very solid actor, but Johny Strong who plays the lone wolf Rourke, also does a pretty good job. Strong also performed the score for this movie, and it set the tone perfectly. Sure, this movie doesn’t do anything that you haven’t seen before, but it is definitely not boring, and especially if you like movies such as these it might be worth your time to see this one.

I give Daylight’s End a 7 out of 10 score.