The Day They Came Back
(2005)
review by The Shape

The Day They Came Back is in indie zombie movie shot on a shoe-string budget of $3,000 – which is important to keep in mind when viewing this short online. Given that fact, you would expect this movie to be far from perfect. Overall the film has some flaws and is a little rough around the edges but is also a huge success in what it was trying to accomplish.

The plot is simple – the walking dead are rising from their graves in search of human flesh. A group of people are caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse trying to understand what is happening while avoiding the undead hordes. The survivors run into two military officers who have survived an attack by the undead that killed most of their crew. In a nutshell – that’s it.

Hey – what do you expect to accomplish in 22 minutes?

The Day They Came Back has pluses and minuses and thankfully the positives far outweigh any of the flaws in the film. Scott Goldberg shows a keen eye behind the lens. His use of shadows, black and white fades, transitions, camera angles and editing are absolutely top notch. All of this makes this feature feel like a seasoned director is at the helm and more money was spent on this film than actually was. Paul Kratka is another big addition to the film. Paul has not acted since he played Rick in Friday the 13th Part 3 and his presence does not suggest this at all. He is very commanding and powerful – stealing the show when on-screen. However, his strong acting can also be a negative as he manages to expose the flaws in those around him who were not quite as strong. Chiko Mendez was also surprisingly effective as Sgt. Hernandez, with a cool but understated demeanor – obviously affected by the hell on earth all around him.

The makeup and effects are remarkable considering the budget for this movie. The zombies looked as good as any Hollywood production and the special effects were surprisingly believable. The suicide scene of Private Rockman was top notch- one of my favorite effects in the movie. Very nice work and Scott is skilled enough not to dwell on the effects but to tease us with them instead. Lastly, Marinho Nobre’s score is absolutely fantastic, setting the mood and atmosphere from the opening frames, and complimenting Scott’s visuals - very impressive for an indie feature!

My favorite scene in the movie is near the opening. After the gloomy setup shots of suburbia with the trees and sky and the shot of the street sign. Nice setup to a zombie holocaust with the two main characters looking on at the mutilated bodies on their lawn and the blood still oozing while the bodies are coming back to life. If only the characters looked and acted as shocked as they should have been – but I will get to that in the next paragraph. Acting aside – it was still a nice setup to what lies ahead.

I realize this is an indie film and those who took part in it did so for no money and sacrificed a lot of their time for this project. Having said, Caley Oakes-Bisson and Mayank Saxena’s performances became so distracting that it was taking away from the sense of dread I was experiencing from the film. The script was strong for the most part – though some more time should have been spent fleshing out the plot and tying things together a little more. One last negative is a personal note – something that was not in the film. While we do get quick cuts of zombies eating intestines and grabbing people to rip them apart, I think the film could have used one of those eerie scenes where we see the zombies just going to town on intestines and brains. Think the feast after the burning car in Night of the Living Dead or the zombies in the cage in the original Dawn of the Dead. I realize this may not have been an option given the budget but it still felt like that “little something” was missing to me.

Log onto scottgoldbergfilms.com to view The Day They Came Back online. It is a fun 22 minutes that you won’t regret and you will get a glimpse of the work of an up and coming young director. Scott is definitely an artist behind the camera and he paints his canvas in blood and intestines! If this guy gets a real budget to work with for any of his next projects – the sky is the limit to what Scott can do for horror fans!