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In Anchor Bay’s latest direct to DVD shocker The Darkroom we are treated to a tour de force of some pretty extreme FX action thanks to Robert Hall who has really made a name for himself over the past few years by working on TV’s Buffy and by directing a great little known film Lightening Bug back in 2004. He has worked on a lot of major Hollywood productions and his work is good, actually it is very good.
The Darkroom is his latest to be released by Anchor Bay following quickly on the heels of Room 6 and Voodoo Moon both of which also released by Anchor Bay following the same formula, which seems to be working. Make the films on the cheap, throw in a couple of horror vets in extended cameos, use up and coming directors and FX talent, kind of the Roger Corman way of making films. It worked then and it works now.
The Darkroom room boasts good production values and excellent special effects to offer up an enjoyable 84 minutes of viewing. The acting is hot and cold. Ellie Cornell whom you should all remember from Halloween 4 and 5 (she co-starred alongside Danielle Harris) opens the film as a doctor looking to offer up some salvation to some nut cases in a mental hospital. It seems they are looking to test a new drug that just may help some of them out. One of the patients is our lead character (Reed Diamond) who goes pretty much unnamed and when he takes the shot he begins having these visions of extreme violence that feature a pretty nasty ass creature. Of course, he escapes the mental ward and is soon wandering the streets, visions in tow, in search of his past and the horrible things happening in his visions. Also along for the ride is Lucy Lawless, yeah, the Xena chick. Also, great character actors Greg Gunberg who all you Heroes fans should know and Chris Ellis who has been on a ton of TV shows and of course, The Devil’s Rejects.
Director Michael Hurst takes a rather complicated and befuddled story line and actually manages to keep the story on track and moving along. You have to pay attention a bit but what confusion remains seems unimportant once the blood starts flowing.
The scripts rather meager attempts at character development kind of hit a sour note with our two main characters spending a lot of time going for “milkshakes” to help explain the story along. Kind of an unusual approach but it works and the mission gets accomplished although not particularly well.
In the end it all works though and you walk away from the viewing pleased with the time spent. It really is worth the price of the disc just to watch the work of Robert Hall.
You can click here to check out the trailer for the film.
We should all appreciate the fact that Anchor Bay and Starz are pumping out the kind of good quality, unrated horror for us fans. It ain’t perfect but it’s damn close.
The Darkroom hits shelves on Jan. 2nd and is most definitely a room worth checking out.
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