The Nameless Days is a horror, written and directed by Andrew Mecham and Matthew Whedon (Behind You). This sets itself apart by its unique setting, though its story, however well told, didn't really do too much to progress the horror genre.
Text at the movie's start speaks of an Aztec myth that the 'nameless days' occur once every twenty years, and is a period of time where the Gods can descend to Earth in order to claim sacrifices.
Nicole (Ally Loannides - V/H/S/99 segment 'Suicide Bid') is a teenage Texan girl who lives with her stern and serious father, Charlie (Charles Halford - Constantine TV series), near the Mexican border. Due to the solitude of the remote rural location, she has dreams of going to university at California to work on her running. With her being the only close family he has, Charlie is quite against the idea. Nicole ends up getting involved with a teenage boy called Rahui (Alejandro Akara - Dark Harvest) and his sister who has recently given birth. Both had recently illegally crossed the border, and find themselves pursued by a demonic creature who wants to claim the newborn baby for its own. Knowing that the 'nameless days' are near to an end, the trio must do all they can to keep the baby safe, with the hope the demonic creature will be forced to return to where it came from once the special days end.
The Nameless Days was a slow burn horror that hides a lot of its budget constraints behind a small cast of characters. It wasn't until the film's second half that events really began to feel like they were moving along. While an indie film, this actually looks great throughout. A lot of mist and fog in the later half really made everything look atmospheric. The small cast of characters were all very morose, with the mood forever being serious throughout. Nicole wasn't a bad protagonist, her plight felt believable, and she was fleshed out enough due to the aspirations she is shown to have. Her skill, that of long distance running, also comes into play in a natural feeling way. I also liked the role of Charlie, as gruff as he was, you got a sense that he really did care about his daughter. Other characters didn't get too much to them. Nicole's best friend Caitlin (Ali Kinkade) is never clued in to the horror going on, so her infrequent appearances felt odd as it seemed she was playing someone from a different genre of film altogether. Nicole also seemed to notice this difference, as when Caitlin randomly shows up at her house in the dead of night, she doesn't see the need to properly warn her about the danger that is very much waiting literally outside. Charlie's best friend Victor (Trey Warner) was a character who felt very wasted. The actor brought a lot of life to his role, but only seemed to be in the film as a way for the Aztec myth story to be introduced. Maybe I missed a death scene, but he just seemed to vanish midway through the movie, when it felt he had a lot more to offer.
The horror itself comes from the demonic woman with the huge claws (Ambyr Mishelle) who stalks the film, eviscerating all she comes across. The majority of the film she spends bathed in shadow, making for an effective antagonist. She gets plenty of kill scenes, but many of these take place off camera, the ones on camera were a little ineffective due to the sparse nature of the special effects. There was more than one apparent death scene where I really wasn't sure the victim had actually died or not. Due to the film never returning to these characters I never did figure this out. My main problem was how the creature appeared to be teleporting around the film world. At one point she is outside a house, next scene she has somehow gotten access not only to the house, but to the crawl space under the property. Then there is a prolonged scene where Nicole is running away from her, yet the slowly walking creature never seems to be too far behind. Who knows, maybe she is meant to be able to teleport, but with that not explained it just seemed she was placed wherever it was convenient the creature needed to be to move the plot forward.
Despite a slow meandering feel to a lot of the film, I did enjoy The Nameless Days. It is the first film I have watched for review since getting over a nasty bout of Covid, and it appears I'm still not completely back to normal. There were faults to be found here, but the film as a whole is made with quality, with lovely use of light and shadow throughout. The Nameless Days is due for release on 13th March via High Fliers Films.
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