End of Days, Inc. (2015)

(On Cable TV, January 2019) You can find the quirkiest films on Canadian cable TV channels: Canadian Content requirements mean that there’s a government-mandated place for small made-in-Canada movies that otherwise wouldn’t stand a chance in another environment. Not all of those films are good, but some are intriguing and ultimately that’s where End of Days, Inc. lands. To be fair, the beginning of the film is better than its conclusion, are we’re introduced to a strange office in which the workers are tricked in working one last night and gradually realize that their impending closure is going to mean the end of the world … and not in a hyperbolic sense. The film works on a small budget with lesser-known actors, and it’s useful to have a tolerance for second (or even third)-rate filmmaking in order to watch the result. The office setting means that there are only a few sets for the entire film, and a cast not much bigger than two handfuls. Much of End of Days, Inc.’s big joke lies in opposing the routine boring nature of office work with the apocalyptic consequences of what they’re doing, but once you’ve gotten over that revelation, the film falls prey to one of the oldest pitfalls in the book: it doesn’t know where to go from there. The characters aren’t vivid enough to compensate for the aimless, easy plotting, and the actors aren’t strong enough to give life to their characters beyond the script. There’s a decent atmospheric feel to the set design, which goes back to decades-ago office furniture for charm. Jennifer Liao’s directing is competent without being inventive enough to wring the most style out of the script she’s been given—but I’d be curious to see what she does next. This being said, I don’t regret seeing End of Days, Inc.: It’s quirky enough to be different, even if it doesn’t quite hit its targets. I’ll willingly watch a few more of those CanCon schedule fillers—not that I have a choice, really.