The final chapter of the trilogy that began with The Decline of the American Empire and continued with The Barbarian Invasions, Days of Darkness has neither that chatty brilliance of the former nor the elegiac emotion of the latter.

Days of Darkness is arguably [Denis] Arcand's most depressing film. Yet it's also one of his greatest and, in a strange way, his most uplifting.

Unfortunately, despite its Fellini-esque scale, this misanthropic satire is not particularly funny. It's too cerebral and too smug.

An apocalyptic film for those who like to pleasure themselves with bad movies about flesh-eaters.