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Scenes of violent storms causing global devastation play out on a news broadcast as a family huddle together in front of the TV on their middle of nowhere farm. Their crops are screwed and even the cows are acting odd, loping off into the torrential rain rather than head for the shelter of the barn. Meet the Gradys; ambulatory meatbag Tom (Steve Bacic), his Mickey-Rourke-faced missus Gillian (Lauren Holly) and their ginger kid Graham (Cole Heppell). Man of the house Tom doesn’t seem all that concerned about the apocalypse going on outside his window as long as he’s still got a beer to hand but with the arrival of nattily dressed drifter, Silas (Luke Perry) all that changes. Looking for refuge from the storm, Silas tries to make himself useful to the Gradys by chopping wood, spouting religious quotations, mumbling cryptic statements about the end of days and helping young Graham get over his dead dog blues. Tom’s not falling for any of it though, he knows there’s something fishy about Silas and damned if he isn’t going to figure it out and worry about that pesky Armageddon nonsense at an unspecified later date!

Eventually the fabulous foursome decide to take a drive into town and see what’s up. They find the place deserted, doors ajar, meals unfinished, gas pumps dry. When they do come across a small group of men they are immediately attacked. Apparently they want the Grady’s car and, to a lesser extent, Gillian. The Gradys, with the help of Silas, manage to escape and head back to their farm. Whereupon Tom resumes drinking and Silas gets back to jawing about the good book and his personal history. Turns out Silas’ father used to own the Grady’s farm until he lost it to the bank and underwent an unspecified ‘accident’ which left daddy hung from a tree and the bank manager, throat slit, dead, beside him. Wait, where did you say you’d been for the last 25 years Silas? And why are you looking at Mrs Grady like that?……….

Uwe Boll; let’s face it, not a director/producer/writer who’s name inspires confidence under the title of a film you’re about to watch. With an overflowing laundry list of half-cooked turkeys to his credit you should really know what to expect from him by now and this straight to DVD low budget Canadian apocalyptic thriller is more of the same. An intriguing premise; the end of the world from the POV of an isolated rural family is unforgivably squandered with cheap melodramatic acting, dialogue and plotting. Coming on like a Sci-Fi channel TV movie crossed with a Lifetime channel thriller, there’s nary a rational action in sight, the family seem more concerned about their missing dog than the possibility of global extinction. Tom’s ridiculous paranoid preoccupation with Silas’ origins/motives predominates and is just stupidly tedious. Glimmers of interesting ideas; global storms, people gone without a trace, all animals including insects vanished – mentioned in passing and never fleshed out or explained in any way. Mind you it’s not as if the characters really seem to care anyway. And once you’ve witnessed the jaw-droppingly rubbish final scene neither will you!

The DVD:

Anamorphic transfer is fine, colors are perhaps a little muted. Audio is clean and clear.