WWE Studios was founded in 2002, and in the ten years it hasexisted, the studio has produced a number of films for the theatrical and home video market based around wrestling personalities. None of them have been particularly great, but they do offer a certain amount of fun, like See No Evil (featuring Kane) and The Condemned (with Stone Cold Steve Austin). With The Day, we have the first WWE production that does not feature any wrestlers. It may also be their best movie yet.
The Day is an engrossing tale of a post-apocalyptic world. I can actually see this taking place in the same world as The Road. They are both set in a desolate world after some unknown apocalyptic event. There are virtually no people or animals around, food is scarce, and there are gangs of cannibals looking for meat. It is not a pretty or a safe world, it is, quite literally, an eat or be eaten world. Still, it is a familiar type of tale and it makes no real effort to disguise its influences. At the same time it stands on its own as an interesting story of friendship and survival.
As The Day opens, we meet our group of survivors walking down a long-abandoned highway. One of their number is sick so they decide to seek refuge in an old farmhouse. They do not want to stay long, as there is always the danger of a cannibal gang arriving on their doorstep.
Drama is built through tension among the members of the group, arguing about staying in the house, where to go next, and how the newest member is not exactly social. Predictably, this new member is not exactly who they seem to be. Secrets are revealed and decisions have to be made. On top of that. they learn the cannibals are on their way and they are not all that distant. Their choice becomes run and likely be caught, or stay in the house and make a stand. Watch the movie, and you will learn the choice they make and the consequences.
The Day is really a surpisingly good movie. What makes it work is the interplay of the actors. This group of performers sell the situation, the feeling of being lost, the uncertainty of the future, and the way they act like a dysfunctional family. It is all rather involving as each player's role emerges.
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