User Reviews

I had high hopes for this film, sounded like an interesting premise. Instead terrible writing combined with a low budget created an absolute snooze fest with contrived unrealistic interpersonal drama substituting for any real action or plot line. By the end of the movie you are hoping at least half of the family won't survive, they're so g'dmned annoying and stupid.

Most of the movie centers around the "family" that basically hates each other hanging out in the house waiting to die. The worst part of the film is that they DO NOT.

"After Darkness" is a family drama played to the background of a blacked-out sun. In spite of the fact there is no solar light, solar powered communications satellites operate for days on their battery back-up. Raymond (Tim Daly) the family patriarch is a self-made man who is overbearing and difficult to get along with. He has a connection with a senator to get the family safely to caves. Ray Jr. (John Patrick Amedori) provides the voice of reason as the family gets on each other's nerves as food runs short and the earth turns cold.

In one scene it was very light outside as if there was moonlight. With no sunlight, there is no moonlight. I thought the power grid stayed active way too long. The family drama centered around the father driving everyone out and crazy, yet he is their only hope for survival. Characters not very engaging.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

I'll add spoiler tags but it doesn't really matter because no one should waste time on this.

You know those films where it was obvious to all involved that it was garbage to begin with, but then someone from the cast becomes a bigger star, so they try to play off that to sell some tickets. This film is one of those turkeys.

The young girl in the film is Natalia Dyer, of "Stranger Things" game, but her age in the film tells me this was originally filmed way before the "2019" release date. Apparently someone thought her inclusion meant this film was at least worth the light of day. They were wrong.

Seriously it makes me angry that real money was spent on this film with actor salaries and whatnot. It looks like it was filmed at a nice wedding venue (the startling lack of furniture in the mansion tells me this), so that's a few grand at least, right?

Anyway, what's so wrong with it? A lot. First of all the science in this film is just plain dumb. Definitely written by someone who has no concept for any natural science (sunspots don't make the Sun "colder", idiots, the spots are the warmer areas of the Sun!).

The dialogue in this film was very sparse, to say the least. This results in 2 issues, 1) Lots of people staring at each other and not saying anything, 2) "Plot twists" are telegraphed a mile a way, because there's so little dialogue that any time someone DOES say something, it must matter (the moment the girl mentioned her sister committed suicide due to "bad berries", I knew the entire family was going to be eating them).

I guess the ending is supposed to be "controversial" or tragic or interesting in some way? Seems more lazy than anything else, and the random "bandits" appearance towards the end was so forced I laughed out loud when they showed up.

As for the acting in the film, WTF happened to Kyra Sedgwick? Or even Tim Daly? He was decent enough in Wings, but is so stiff in this film I thought some kind of "wood Medusa" had turned him into a board. Loosen up dude! Natalia Dyer does decent enough, you can tell she's a budding star.

I really don't know how this screenplay of probably 11 pages was stretched into 90 minutes, but stretch they did. Avoid!

There's nothing about this that deserved recording. A complete waste of whatever recording medium was used to save it. The story is barely there. Here it is; the sun goes out and then nothing happens. The acting is poor but that is probably because the words they have to say are so awkward and implausible. The only redemption I can get for watching this movie is if I can convince you not to waste your time. Please do not watch this movie.

But if you do ... you are supposed to realize that they all died in the end. You may not notice between wishing you were dead and being so glad that it's over. Watching this could be penance for some really bad sins.

Growing up most had one of two educational paths to follow - humanities or sciences. Without question most writers did not pursue sciences beyond what they remember from grade/middle school. I've seen lots (most, actually) bad science in film & print, but this one's near the top for this year's Ig Nobel Award for Stupid Science. No, the Sun's fusion doesn't abruptly stop (the consequences are far more severe than this film's no light plot), and more so to abruptly start again - Gawd!! Usual storyline of people fighting (in this case mostly arguing) over food, shelter, etc. as resources become scarce. But, there is light (metaphor for door to Heaven, or ...) at the end of the ...

This movie is set up almost as a play would be in the theater. Definitely a theatrical drama done in video. If you do not like this type of slower movies where a scene can have longer periods of silence and you need the action and the music, press skip and find something else to watch. I did enjoy watching it and it was nice to discover all the different things each character goes through and how they manage to deal with it in their crazy dysfunctional way. At the end...SPOILER....they all die. Raymond is asleep and he "wakes up" to the light of the Sun and they all wake up and go outside to feel the light of the Sun again after living in darkness. Let's not forget that the Sun was dying and that they were approaching the time when there would be no more Sun which means everything on earth would die too. The Sun wasn't just going to go back to life. This shows that even Raymond was the character that hated his family dynamic the most, at the end his idea of heaven was all of them together and that's what is shown in the movie but it's just his idea of what heaven would be. Truth is they all died.

How do you know when an actress is desperately fighting the end of her career? When she executive produces horrible movies so she can star in them! The premise of this movie was supposed to be a nightmare for all humanity, but if the sun going dark meant no one ever had to be exposed to this nightmare again it would be worth it. There were swiss cheese level plot holes and countless unanswered questions, but none more compelling then why did Kyra Sedgewick's character suddenly start speaking French while delivering a baby? And why did she drag poor Tim Daly into this thing? Does she hate him? We were drawn in by the names Kyra Sedgewick and Tim Daly. I'll never make that mistake again. You shouldn't either.

I can enjoy a doomsday movie, even a bad one. It's fun or interesting to see different characters react in end of civilization situations. However this movie's storyline was a non-starter. In fact there is no story.

The family comes together to supposedly wait for the arrival of the government coming to get them to take them to caves where they will survive a solar flare ending civilization doomsday situation. With an overbearing father they blindly follow his orders while waiting.

But he doesn't do anything. He doesn't prepare his family, talk to his family anything! And though the whole movie they have power and water and supplies. They literally haven't even started the end of day process through the entire movie but some how can't take the stress of her situation.

I take reviews of movies with a grain of salt but do yourself a favor and don't waste any time on this ridiculously bad story. I'm glad I was playing cards with my dad as this was on so I don't feel like my hour and a half of my life was completely wasted.

1 Star for the good cast.

After watching this, I was very disappointed. As the movie progress, you realize how the father is a domineering a**hole who always has to have it his way. He never give a thought about "what would happen if". He made no attempt to get rid of the rats or preserve the remaining food. The father fail at his job as a parent. He fail to teach his child to be independent. He fail to take any responsibility to in part of his daughter's suicide instead blaming it on the wife. Within the first few minutes, you knew everyone was going to die. There were so many faults in this movie. And overall as I orginally said this entire movie was a disappointment.