Serving as a prequel effort to “3 Days of Darkness”, director Khavn brought about this effort in 2005, several years before he filmed and released the year after that film making for a convoluted series of incidents. Shot in one day during the same production year as “Goodbye My Shooting Star”, “Bahag Kings” and Vampire of Quezon City, this minimalist effort definitely has its moments but not enough to overcome its troublesome aspects.
Khavn draws on the Book of Revelation for one of the most frightening phenomenon prophesied to happen. Three girls are trapped in their home as the Three Days of Darkness descend on the Earth and they must cope and try to fend off the demons that have come to take them. A chilling vision of God's Wrath or of people imposing God's Wrath on one another, the film frightens with its questions as much as it does with its visuals.
What “3 Days of Darkness Zero”does right is get to the point immediately, dropping the girls into the darkness at the very beginning after only one brief conversation over dinner. Since the majority of the film then turns into them fighting with each other over the source of the situation and their religious faith being questioned, this building suspense of the encroaching darkness is a rather fun time here. As they argue and fight over the candles or the usefulness of praying, the encounters with the outside world allow for some chilling moments that seem to signal something far more deadly than they expected, going on around the house. With the night-vision sequences showing figures moving around in the darkness with them unaware that's happening, the tension created here is quite enjoyable. That's really all the positives to be found here, though.
There are some big problems with “3 Days of Darkness Zero.” Among the biggest issues is the repetitive and tiresome manner of having Liz and Shereen continually argue over their religious faith conflicting with each other. The arguments always devolve into the same thing, where Liza believes in everything and Shereen is less trusting and doesn't fall for the stories of hope and trust. Putting her money on a crazy situation that they will get out of without having a biblical connotation for what's going on, these two tend to argue and engage in numerous lengthy conversations that either spring from trusting faith or circle around back to it. These make the two sound immature and barely appealing to sit through the situation, especially once they start yelling and arguing and forcing the issue upon each other.
The other real issue here is that Khavn has long stretches of running time eaten up with nearly impossible to decipher blackness that exists solely on Liza crying, screaming or praying over and over again without anything visually happening otherwise. It's a cheatful tactic that belies the extreme budget and inability to showcase what's going on when so much of what's happening is unable to be viewed. Considering some of the bizarre and outright unusual noises heard, ranging from machinery clanking to weird insect-like buzzing and strange zooming and divebombing sounds coming across sonically, to not be given a visual on-screen of what's going on with the sequence is frustrating and annoying. Likewise, since it's so long and carries on throughout the entire final act, it just becomes tedious and boring to witness, ending this on a sour note.
Despite some watchable aspects present throughout here, “3 Days of Darkness Zero” has more problems than positives which hold out enough that it doesn't have much worth for the most part. It's more of a curiosity piece for fans of Khavn's work, while most other viewers won't be appreciative of the film at all.
