Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella star and Sean and Ben in this preposterous but agreeable alien invasion film; they lose out on prospective Russian investment in their mobile app during a trip to Moscow, only to survive the initial onslaught of invisible invaders that disintegrate whatever they touch. With a couple of female American tourists in tow, they hide out in a club basement for a few days and emerge into a destroyed, vacant city that recalls The Day of the Triffids (or if you like, 28 Days Later). Sean realizes that the aliens can be detected the the common light bulb, which glows in the vicinity of their ambient electrical fields. After some close calls they find a few other survivors, who have started to put together counteroffensive weapons that Nikola Tesla would admire.
This is a pretty low-budget film by today’s standards, and it was a good call to set it in Moscow, which adds to the air of not-quite-modernity mixed with low-tech. The script is reasonably smart for this kind of film and I liked that it is not afraid to kill the characters we are supposed to be rooting for. The Darkest Hour is not a classic but it is a cut above the SyFy channel fodder that it will undoubtedly be scheduled around a year from now.
