''The Day'' is a 2011 Canadian
post-apocalyptic film
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astr ...
directed by Douglas Aarniokoski. The film stars
Ashley Bell,
Shannyn Sossamon
Shannon Marie Kahololani "Shannyn" Sossamon () is an American actress, director, and musician. She has appeared in the films ''A Knight's Tale'' (2001), '' 40 Days and 40 Nights'', ''The Rules of Attraction'' (both 2002), '' The Order'' (2003), ' ...
,
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan (born 8 December 1976) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's film trilogy ''The Lord of the Rings'' (2001–2003), and Charlie Pace on J. J. Abram ...
,
Shawn Ashmore
Shawn Robert Ashmore (born October 7, 1979) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Bobby Drake / Iceman in the ''X-Men'' film series, Jake Berenson in the television series ''Animorphs'', Agent Mike Weston in the television drama se ...
and
Cory Hardrict
Cory Hardrict (born November 9, 1979) is an American actor. He has appeared in film and television since the late 1990s.
Personal life
Hardrict was born in Chicago, Illinois. After dating for six years, Hardrict and actress Tia Mowry were engage ...
. The film premiered on , 2011 at the
2011 Toronto International Film Festival
The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011.
Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film ...
. The film was released in in the United States on , 2012. It screened theatrically for and grossed $20,984.
Plot
The Day follows a group of five survivors in a post-apocalyptic world as they travel through a bleak environment in an attempt to find food, shelter, and a safe place to stop running from tribes of savage cannibals that roam the country-side. They hope to plant two jars of seeds that they either stole or found during their journey. There was at some point twelve in their group, but it is not known how the others died or how long the remaining five have been on the run.
One of the survivors, Adam (
Shawn Ashmore
Shawn Robert Ashmore (born October 7, 1979) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Bobby Drake / Iceman in the ''X-Men'' film series, Jake Berenson in the television series ''Animorphs'', Agent Mike Weston in the television drama se ...
), who we see in flashbacks, left his wife and daughter alone in the car outside while he searched for supplies inside an empty house located in a ravaged suburban community. His wife and daughter were attacked and either captured or killed. The rest of the group are Rick (
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan (born 8 December 1976) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's film trilogy ''The Lord of the Rings'' (2001–2003), and Charlie Pace on J. J. Abram ...
), Shannon (
Shannyn Sossamon
Shannon Marie Kahololani "Shannyn" Sossamon () is an American actress, director, and musician. She has appeared in the films ''A Knight's Tale'' (2001), '' 40 Days and 40 Nights'', ''The Rules of Attraction'' (both 2002), '' The Order'' (2003), ' ...
), Henson (
Cory Hardrict
Cory Hardrict (born November 9, 1979) is an American actor. He has appeared in film and television since the late 1990s.
Personal life
Hardrict was born in Chicago, Illinois. After dating for six years, Hardrict and actress Tia Mowry were engage ...
) and Mary (
Ashley Bell).
Seeking refuge in the countryside, the five decide to go to a nearby farmhouse for shelter, debating whether to stay until one of their group, Henson, has recovered from whatever has made him sick; or to rest there briefly and then move on to avoid attracting cannibals. The group separate: the men explore the house, while the two women head outside after their leader, Rick, asks them to try to trap some game. Instead, Mary goes to a nearby stream to clean up. While cleaning her dress, Mary hears someone moving toward her and realizes at the last minute that it's a scout for one of the tribes that live in the area. He chases her across the stream but she is able to reach her gun and shoot him.
Meanwhile, back in the farmhouse, Adam and Rick explore the basement and discover boxes full of tinned food. They yell out for Henson to come and look at what they've found but discover that the tins contained rocks, and inadvertently activate a trap that sets off an alarm, shuts the three men in the basement and kills Rick. Several cannibals show up and attempt to get to the men in the basement but are all killed by Shannon and Mary, who, hearing the alarm, rush back to the house where they find and confront the attackers. One of them recognizes a mark on Mary's thigh and identifies her as a cannibal from a rival tribe, then attempts to escape but is killed by Mary.
The women rescue the men from the basement and afterward, Shannon knocks Mary unconscious, having heard the cannibal question Mary about being one of them. The three decide to restrain her in a chair and question her aggressively about her past in order to learn who and what she really is. When she doesn't speak, Adam, furious over Rick's death, begins to torture her, while Shannon looks on, urging him to just kill her instead. After Adam cuts off the skin on Mary's thigh with her tribe mark and attempts to force feed it to her, Henson intervenes and stops Adam from going any further. Mary eventually gives in and tells Adam she was not responsible for killing Adam's wife and daughter. She explains that she massacred her own tribe while they were sleeping because they killed her younger sister who injured/broke her leg and would have died from infection in a week, so was immediately strung up and killed to be eaten. She insists that she was only trying to survive. She also reminds them that the tribe that set the trap is coming for them. After listening to the story, the three burn Rick's dead body while they debate whether to free her or kill her.
Meanwhile, the tribe of cannibals and its leader (
Michael Eklund
Michael Eklund is a Canadian television and film actor who is known for playing the role of the villain or antihero. His characters are often described as being "creepy".
His roles include a kidnapper who terrorizes characters played by Halle ...
) swear to take back their house and supplies. The four barricade the entire house as they prepare themselves for the oncoming battle. Under cover of night, the tribe invades the house where the four are. As waves of attackers attempt to get inside, the group initially use weapons to stab or cut them, but eventually fire at them through the windows. Several men break through a barricade and drag Shannon outside, but she is saved by Henson, who is killed instead.
When Shannon unintentionally kills his young son, the leader of the attacking tribe is enraged and leaves his young daughter to avenge her brother's death. In the morning, the remaining cannibals attack the house once again, igniting it with Molotov cocktails. Mary insists Shannon and Adam leave through the back and leave her to confront the remaining enemy clan members in front of the house, which they agree upon. After they leave, Mary realizes Shannon has taken the shells from her shotgun.
Mary is overpowered by the leader, only to be saved when Adam comes back to help her fight off the last few cannibals. During the fight, he sustains a series of wounds which lead to his death. Out in the woods, Shannon is attacked, and her throat is slashed by the leader's daughter, who leaves her to die. At the farmhouse, Mary cremates Adam's remains, then starts to walk away only to encounter the leader's daughter who pretends to be an innocent girl. As they both start walking, the girl reaches for a jagged blade to kill her but Mary is quicker and decapitates her, then continues walking away from the burning farmhouse.
Cast
Production
''The Day'' is directed by Douglas Aarniokoski based on a screenplay by Luke Passmore. Filming took place in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, during the fall of 2010.
Release
''The Day'' premiered at the
2011 Toronto International Film Festival
The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011.
Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film ...
on , 2011. After the screening, Splendid acquired rights to distribute the film in German-speaking territories in Europe and Benelux.
WWE Studios
WWE Studios Inc. (formerly known as WWE Films) is an American film studio owned by the professional wrestling promotion WWE. WWE Studios movies frequently mix well-known actors and actresses in lead roles with WWE wrestlers, and teams with existi ...
also acquired rights to distribute the film in the United States. It later partnered with
Anchor Bay Films
Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television ser ...
to co-distribute the film. In November 2011, Entertainment One acquired rights to distribute the film in the United Kingdom, France, Scandinavia, and South Africa.
The film was released in in the United States on , 2012. It was in release for and grossed $20,984.
Reception
Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports 29% among 13 reviews an average rating of 5 out of 10.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
reports among 9 reviews an overall score of 41 out of 100; it identified one positive review, six mixed reviews, and two negative reviews.
References
External links
Official Facebook page*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, The
2011 films
2011 horror films
2011 independent films
2011 science fiction films
2011 horror thriller films
Canadian science fiction horror films
Canadian horror thriller films
English-language Canadian films
2010s English-language films
Films shot in Ontario
Canadian independent films
Canadian post-apocalyptic films
WWE Studios films
Films directed by Douglas Aarniokoski
Films set on farms
Canadian survival films
2010s science fiction horror films
2010s survival films
2010s Canadian films