Product: Darkness: The Vampire Version (2005)
Rating: 4.0
Worth seeing, but pick it up CHEAP.....
I gave this flick 4 stars for the gore. It is plentiful and convincing enough, especially given the budget(?). I had never heard of this flick, so I don't know if it really has a cult following or not. Maybe in Germany, but they'll watch ANYTHING. If you have a soft spot for low-budget splatter, and are very forgiving, you'll probably like this. It's kind of like a modern version of a Fred Olen Ray flick, but with no boobs. The gore and action are spread liberally throughout, so it never gets boring. There are a few(okay, many) glaring examples of poor or lazy scripting(like the dumb broad who watches in horror as her boyfriend is torn apart for like 4 minutes instead of running, yeah right), but nothing out of the ordinary for this type of movie. As a child of the 80's, the cheesy thrash metal, longhairs, and mullet models that made up the cast(and probably the crew) really took me back and made me feel nostalgic. The plot, such as it is, is this: a group of teenage stoners return from a concert to find a vampiric invasion of their sleepy jerkwater town well underway. Since one of the local teenage hicks has been battling the leeches for like 3 days already, he joins up with them, and they try to stay alive while searching for their friends and families. The whole thing takes place over 4 or 5 days. Like I said, the gore is good, and if that's all you're looking for, you will be pleased. But if you hate it when cheapjack flicks use day for night, this will irritate you to no end. Also, the transfer is kind of crappy. It seems choppy and slightly pixelated, as though they didn't really have the right equipment. It's not the worst I've seen, though. Maybe the source materials were just that bad, I dunno. This DVD has plenty of extras. I thought the reunion docu was actually pretty cool, it seems that this movie was something of a local phenomenon in the town where it was made. The teaser trailers for Darkness 2 & 3 seem more like wishful thinking, but, hey, good luck, dudes. Any way, this review is for the single-disc version. I can't see shelling out for a 2-disc version of this, even though I liked it. I paid 15 bucks for it, try to get it for 10 or less, and you should be quite happy with your purchase.