A Day Of Judgment — A Day Of Judgment (Blu Ray)
Now here’s something you certainly don’t see every day- a moralistic 1920’s set melodrama, that blends in slasher tropes with God-fearing supernatural horror touches. Released in the early 80’s- the golden age of the slasher film- A Day Of Judgment is certainly the most distinctive and original film to have (just) fallen within the slice ‘n’ dice genre. From the folks over at Severin is a region free Blu ray release of this real curio- bringing together a new 2k scan of the picture, a featurette from the always great regional horror expert Steven Thrower, and interviews with those behind the film.
Released in the year 1981 A Day Of Judgment (aka Stormbringer) is a regional horror film with very clear Christian leanings/ focus- it was made in and around Shelby North Carolina. It was the one and the only film directed by one Charles Reynolds( as C.D.H. Reynolds), and it was produced by Earl Owensby- who was behind/ distributed a whole host of regional horror/ exploration fare in the ’70s and 80’s- taking in the likes gritty vigilantly film about a skid row reverend Dark Sunday(1976), 3D when Rottweilers attack film Dogs Of Hell( 1983), and corny/ low budget Star Wars Spoof Hyperspace(1984). As debut films go A Day Of Judgment is a fairly competent made feature - though first and for most, it is a moralistic drama, with the slasher/ supernatural horror elements playing second fiddle to melodrama.
The film is set in a small country town in the 1920’s- with fairly good period costumes, cars, and detail-though the acting is highly mixed moving between fairly competent-if-still hammy and wonky amateur dramatics. The whole thing kicks off with the town’s revenant (the film's director) – sporting a badly dyed grey hair/ beard, preaching to his very small flock. He's despairing that no one is coming to church, and their morals have gone seriously askew as they are breaking pretty much all of the ten commandments. One night on the outskirts of town the priest meets the angel of death- who has a badly burnt face, black cape and hat and carrying a huge scythe- coming to judge the town.
As the film unfolds, we meet one sinner after another- we have a mean old woman who poisons the pet goat of a group of children who go into her garden. There’s an uncaring bank manager who snatches land off a desperate farmer. A young man who sells the grange and house under his elderly parents, and a few love triangles. And one by one they get their judgement- be it pulled down to hell by grabbing hands, scared mad by the angle of death, stalked in the dark, and one very effective decapitation towards the end of the film. Also in the last quarter, we get the bad doers going to a red-lit, damned backdrop, and flashing ‘n’ leering skull head hell. With before the credits’ role some very preachy texts and the ten commandment’s flowing by.
It’s fair to say that you have to go into A Day Of Judgment, expecting first and for most a moralistic and Christian focused period drama, with light slasher and horror tropes. And if you do- you’ll find a real curio, which even by normal wacky regional horror standards is very unique/ distinctive.
Moving onto this just out region free release- and the new 2K scan looks very bright, bold and crisp- which gives some of the daytime scenes a rather sort of glowing quality, with the darker-more horror fed moments having quite a colourful Giallo like feel. On the extras front, and we get a just under twenty-minute featurette from Mr Thrower- here he starts off by talking about how Charles Reynolds got into filmmaking/ got involved with producer Earl Owensby. Moving onto the film to hand, discussing its filming and the finished production which Thrower described as ‘a DC horror comic made into film with Christian leanings’, before discussing what happened to the director after he made the film. Lastly, we have a nearing four-minute interview with Worth Ketter who associate producer on the film was, and Thom McIntyre who wrote the film's script- so two most worthy/ interesting extras.
It’s great to see Severin digging deep into the regional horror genre for this most distinctive film from the golden age of the slasher film. As I mentioned early, do go into this expecting a horror-tinged period drama- and you enjoy well enough what we have here, and the print/ extras are rather good/ neat too.