Imagine putting your young daughter to bed and waking later that night, only to find her slashed to death by a knife in the very bed she slept.  Young Emma's parents are distraught and suffering from terrible grief.  They decide to move to a cabin in the mountains - a chance to heal and start anew.  Julie (Cheri Christian), her mom, is becoming more and more depressed and withdrawn.  Unfortunately for her, this mountaintop is riddled with the restless spirits of the dead, and they are drawn to her suffering like magnets.

When I had gotten into a discussion some months back with Headspace director Andrew van den Houten, we got to talking about horror films from a fan's perspective (interview).  He raved about a movie called Dark Remains, so I had to check it out.  Its a ghost story, done on a low budget scale by a relatively new director named Brian Avenet-Bradley.  Dark Remains is one of those films that transcends what you'd expect from it, and quite frankly, made me jump like the first solid twitch of an epileptic seizure at one point, which I didn't think was possible to do anymore.

The plot is dark.  Nobody smiles in this film.  From the onset you're shown two suicides, and then the murder of an innocent little girl who lay sleeping in her bed.  From there her parents are followed up to the mountains, where, granted, there are a lot more serious and sad faces.  In an effort to regain a thirst for life through her photography, husband Allen (Greg Thompson) hands Julie her camera before a walk in the forest.  A trail takes her to a local abandoned prison, where disgruntled ghosts pose for pictures, and unknowingly follow her home.  Its about their time of year to strike the mountain, as they've been doing for years before during the latter part of May.

Inside the house, the hauntings begin, as the spirits of those who have died on this mountain begin to hang in the shower, lurk in the reflection of bathroom mirrors, peer through windows, and spidercrawl down the stairs like Regan in the 2000 Exorcist release.  This backslider looks a lot like Cheryl from Evil Dead - and although these haunting techniques are not out of the ordinary, Avenet-Bradley shoots them in such a way that has them appearing in moments that you'd least expect.  He uses several shots over and over, most of which pack no scare, and then when you're expecting nothing, BAM.  I haven't seen a horror film with such an unusually keen sense of timing in many months.

The blood and violence isn't above average.  There are slit wrists, implied gunshots to the head (you know, the barrel in the mouth and the splash against the wall), bludgeonings and stabbings - but nothing that will make genre fans especially squeamish.  Its the ghosts, man.  The one that appears when the friends are over popped me out of my seat, and I had to laugh because it got me.  Chances are it will get you too.

Final analysis:  As far as low budget straight to DVD movies go, this one is exceptional and worth a viewing.  Ghost stories are a dime a dozen.  Having most recently seen American Haunting, Fragile, and Gravedancers, this low budget standout has no problem hanging with the pack.  Fragile had creepy moments, and Gravedancers had wacked out evil faces to freak you out - but Dark Remains has a moment or two that'll make you jump like youre having a cadaver spasm.  The story gets slightly thinned out towards the end, but supporting actor Scott Hodges does a great job resparking attention playing the disturbed neighbor Jim Paynem, and overall, you get more than you would expect from something else of this quality.  Dark Remains is a low budget haunting that has moments you wont soon forget.

Dark Remains
Following their daughter's brutal murder, a grieving young couple escapes the city to find solace in the mountains.  As they try to recover, they soon discover their new home is haunted by violent entities with tragic histories of their own. - DarkRemains.com

DVD Features Include:  Snap Case
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - Director's Commentary
Behind The Scenes
Featurettes - "Big Red: The Ghost of Floyd County Prison"
Outtakes - Deleted Scenes
Trailers

- Official Website

Starring: Cheri Christian, Greg Thompson, Scott Hodges, Rachael Rollins, Rachael Jordan Directed by: Brian Avenet-Bradley

Click HERE to purchase the DVD from Amazon.com