Umm...It Didn't End...
I'm rather uncertain why this is called "The Day The World Ended" because this really isn't an apocolpyic movie. It's really a baffling made-for-TV movie, which is a horrible remake of a 1950's movie of the same name which starred Randy Quaid as a creepy parent figure, which he knows a little about cause of a movie he made called "Parents".
Natassja Kinski is Dr. Jennifer Stillman, a school psychologist from New York who gets a job in a small ass town in Nevada called Sierra Vista. Upon arriving she finds everyone staring at her and meets the Sheriff. Pretty much anyone who isn't Jennifer in this movie is kind of odd, and the Sheriff is no exception.
Jennifer arrives at the school and meets Principal Ed Turner and Nurse Della. Della and Jennifer are sharing an office together and Jennifer is there when Della brings in Benjamin McCann for fighting. The thing is, Ben wasn't really fighting, he was getting pummeled by a kid who was pretending to hit him in the face, which somehow managed to leave bruises on Benjamin. Ben, however, just looked at the kid and his nose started bleeding, which is why Della thought Ben was fighting.
Jennifer tries to psychoanalize Ben but nothing doing. Ben's father, Dr. Michael McCann (Randy Quaid) picks him up and takes him home. Later, Jennifer goes to the local diner where the weirdest bunch of them all hang out: The cook Harlen, a waitress named Carlito (as in "Carlito's Way" so I'm guessing this was a tribute to Al Pacino), and a Judge who is simply called Judge. There, Jennifer finds out that Ben is adopted and Mike really isn't Ben's father.
So who's the mother? Who's the father? What's going on?
Well it doesn't take a real genius to figure out that aliens and super mind powers are involved and everyone in town knows this but is keeping something a secret, which Jennifer is trying to figure out.
One night, Mike, who is the town's only doctor (told you it was a small ass town), gets a call and has to leave. Ben is watching the original "The Day The World Ended" which looked far better then this movie and I kinda wished my video store had this version. But, alas, older movies must be pushed aside for copies of "Troy" or "Women Crying: The Movie: The Musical".
Sorry, got sidetracked.
Anyway, Ben is watching the movie when he watches something crash in the forest by his house (There's always a forest by the main person's house in a sci fi movie, I'm glad I'm a city boy.) so Ben leaves to investigate.
While searching, we get David Lynch-type flashbacks to sometime where his Mom, Maggie, who was the town slut according to Della, said to Ben that his real father was gonna come in a big spaceship and take him back home. Then a tiny midget talked backwards and danced to a jazz song...no wait, that would've been cool.
What did happen, instead, is Ben sees a giant green figure thing somewhere and it turns out to be Randy Quaid. Mike gets pissed off and grounds Ben from leaving the house, which is odd cause he's such a loner that he never goes out anywhere anyway...really effective parenting. The proper way to punish a loner is to make him hang out with the cool kids at the mall, wear clothes from The Gap, and listen to Ludacris and/or Hillary Jojo Brandi Hogan Lohan.
Ben sneaks out and somehow makes his way to his school where he spots Principal Turner and Della leaving. See, it's a Tuesday and on Tuesday's Turner and Della go to the school and fuck each other. The reason I know this happens on a Tuesday is because a character later on says that this happens on a Tuesday. Why ONLY on a Tuesday is a mystery, maybe these people only get horny once a week and it falls on a Tuesday, I dunno.
Anyhoo, Ben sees Della and Turner and Ben also sees the giant green monster thing rip off Della's face and attack Turner but leave him alive. The face ripping scene is the only cool thing about this damn movie. If they could've just repeated that over and over again for 90 minutes, I would've been happy. Or having a backward's talking midget dance to a jazz song would've done as well.
Ben freaks out and rushes back home. The next day, the incompetent small town police don't know how to handle crime scenes and rope off the area with tree garland (It's Christmas time as well). Ben knows who did it and Jennifer is trying to get it out of him, but the weirdos at the diner, who is watching Ben while Mike examines Della, treaten Jennifer with shotguns and vague ideas on what's going on.
And while Ben is in the bathroom, he comes face to face with the creature, who tries to kill him for some reason. Ben esacpes, Jennifer scoops him up and gets the hell out of there. The creature kills Carlito and Harlen. The Judge, he breaks a window, gets his shoe caught in a piece of glass and loses it, and runs out. He goes to a gas station and steals some dude's car and gets the fuck outta Dodge.
Meanwhile, in my head, I'm thinking "The..birds...sing...a pretty...song..." but backwards while humming a jazz song.
Everyone in town is freaked out and they call a Town Meeting because they're not use to dead bodies. And the Sheriff is freaked out cause "only certain people are dying...you know...CERTAIN PEOPLE!!" which means something to Mike.
Mike goes back home and confronts Ben asking him why he's obsessed with a creature that is killing people and decides to trash his room because Randy Quaid tends to overact at time. Then we see Ben use his mental powers by moving shit around and breaking windows.
This happened as well in "Phenomenon" and it turned out to be a tumor. Maybe that's all...eh I'm thinking too much...
Mike sedates Ben and goes to the town meeting where Turner shows up all beaten up. He says he saw the alien creature kill Della and attack him, which incites a mob and they all rush home to get their guns, cause, by golly, it's been a dang while since a good ol' fashion town hunt has happened.
Jennifer breaks into Ben's house and wakes him up to ask him the same questions, who, what, where, when, why, and how was Laura Palmer killed...damn sorry.
When Mike shows up with a shotgun, Ben gets freaked out and leaves and runs, you guessed it, into Twin Peaks.
NO! I mean into the forest.
There, Jennifer finds out that they're all alien hunting and that Ben belongs to the alien or something like that and just laughs it off. They take off while Jennifer waits around for Ben to come back.
Ben runs through the forest and finds a shed. Inside he finds a necklace which triggers a longer David Lynch-type flashback.
For one reason or another, Harlen, Mike, Carlito, the Judge, the Sheriff, and Della thought Maggie, Ben's mom, was causing windows to break all around or that she's a witch or something and wanted to kill her. When Ben, as a 2 year old, grabbed onto Maggie's necklace, the one Present Ben is holding in the shed, this trigged a weird thing where any piece of jewelry on everyone burned them, which gave Maggie and Ben an opportunity to escape.
They ran into the shed where Maggie told him about the space ship thing and everyone caught up to her. Mike proceeds to strangle her and deciding to adopt Ben right then and there.
Now...this is just stupid and confusing. Everyone seems to think and know that Ben has some mental powers because they're scared of him looking at them and weird shit happens when he's around, yet they all thought it was Maggie so they killed her.
Ugh, nevermind, my head hurts trying to figure it out. I can only hope the screenwriter's computer will crash before they write another script like this.
So Ben figures it out and rushes back to Jennifer where he tells her everything. Mike figures out that the green alien creature isn't real, it's a thing Ben made to get back at everyone for killing Maggie all those years ago which it why it only kills certain people. Mike tries to kill Ben to stop it all once and for all, but, alas it kills him and the Sheriff.
Yay, everyone's dead. Oh, right, the Judge. Mike found his dead body while searching for Ben. Ok, now everyone's dead. And as you probably suspected, Jennifer turns right around and heads back to New York City, adopting Ben herself.
Awww...she decided to adopt a kid who can create giant creatures who can kill. How sweet.
So like I said, I'm not sure why this is called The Day The World Ended, I'm not sure why the original was called that if it also dealt with an alien killing people, and I'm not sure why anyone would want to remake this idea. If I were to remake it, I'd actually have the world end, then have 5 super hot supermodels be the only survivors and...
Wait, that'd be a porno. Nevermind.
Well, I think everyone involved with this movie knew it sucked and didn't even try to act, including the kid who anytime he was scared, gave a generic looked, looked sad gave a generic look, and looked like he was about to banish someone into the cornfield, gave a generic look. Granted, he's a kid, but I know some kid actors who could've pulled this off with no problem. I mean that Haley Joel kid was good in "The Sixth Sense". The budget probably couldn't afford Haley Joel but they could've gotten his brother Alex Jonathan..or whatever.
If you'll excuse me, I feel like watching "Twin Peaks" for some odd reason.
1 star.
"The Day The World Ended" on IMDb.com:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272575/