'The Darkest Hour': story details, artwork revealed

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Artwork for The Darkest Hour. Source: Comingsoon.net

The post-apocalyptic alien-invasion movie The Darkest Hour began its publicity campaign in San Diego yesterday adjacent to Comic-Con. Crowds were shown the first trailer (expected online in the coming days), as well as stills and artwork for the movie.

Filmed on-location in Moscow, The Darkest Hour follows a group of survivors battling an invading extraterrestrial force which has already conquered most of the planet.

According to Comingsoon.net:

Artwork for The Darkest Hour. Source: Comingsoon.net

“The aliens of the film are electricity-based and tend to be invisible unless they're attacking. The one clue to knowing when they're approaching is that power returns to the immediate vicinity, leading the band of survivors to gather light bulbs to use as signals.

Though the aliens take control of the planet immediately, depleting the world's energy resources, a band of resistance fighters springs up, using scientific technology to combat the invaders. The group meets a Russian scientist (Dato Bakhtadze), who has devised a mobile form of a Faraday cage (a real-world device that prevents electricity from doing harm to an individual). In his apartment, he's even applied the principle to his cat and manages to build versions of the device for Russian freedom fighters to use in combat. (One piece of production art has a soldier on his horse, both making use of the device).

When the aliens do manage to attack, they literally shred people to pieces. Though all we see is yellow/orange energy, it's hinted that we'll learn a lot more about what the aliens look like and where they come from before the end of the film.”

The movie's story was co-written by Leslie Bohem, who wrote Spielberg's UFO miniseries, Taken (2002). It has also been revealed that the film will be released in conjunction with a spin-off comic book, which will show how the alien invasion/occupation unfolds on a global scale, beyond the confines of Moscow.

The Darkest Hour is due for release in 3D and 2D on December 23, 2011.