Film Review: DARKROOM (2013)

The road to recovery has never been as menacing as it is for Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) in the film Darkroom (2013).  Michelle has just gotten a new job recommended by her counselor after having been in rehab recovering from a past trauma.  Upon taking the new job she soon discovers that she’s the prisoner of three psychotic siblings who will teach her how to repent for her past sins even if it kills her. 

Michelle is forced to undergo intense questioning and torturing before she realizes she is but one of many other women who are also subjected to the siblings’ idea of religious purging and she must find a way to escape before she becomes their next victim.

Written by Britt Napier the film is designed as a lower budget version of Saw (2004) mixed with a little bit of The People Under the Stairs (1991) but is neither as graphic or horrifying or fun and entertaining as those two films (respectfully).  What the film does have going for it is Elisabeth Rohm who plays one of the siblings.  It’s refreshing to see her in a villainous role as I’m so used to seeing her in the hero and good-girl and she does her character well.

The film tries hard to make a point of having the Michelle character overcome her own person and internal demons by externalizing them by trying to save herself and a friend from the torture but it comes at the costs of logic as there is no real logic to some of the character’s motivations as audiences will perceive them as idiotic.  DeFer is a very capable actress who gives Michelle enough of an edge to allow you to oversee the film’s shortcomings.

Film Review: BLACK FOREST (2012)

Writer Frank H. Woodward has crafted a very interesting story of fairy-tales coming to life in the film Black Forest (2012).  Ben Cross is Cazmar, a local tourist peddler who takes people into the wild to catch glimpses of fairies and other otherworldly things only most of the tourists never believe him.  On this latest trek he’s assembled a great many people from different backgrounds to go with him including Saxon (Shaffer L’Abidine) who has studied folktales and legends.  Saxon and the unsuspecting tourists get more than they bargained for when one of the members of the group’s newborn baby is stolen by a fairy and they discover that they have crossed over into a fairy-tale land. 

They will need to start believing in the unbelievable in order to rescue the baby and figure out how to survive in a world where the fairy tales they’ve grown up with are all out to kill (or eat) them.  Time is running out for the group as a big bad wolf is also hunting them along with all the other creatures that inhabit the strange land.

Not a bad film considering that fairy-tales are kind of old hat but a lot of the success of the film comes from the very capable ensemble cast which work together to help create the fairy-tale world.  There is also a lot of great production design given to the film and even though the werewolf sequences aren’t the best there is plenty of other great sequences in the film that over shadow this.  Cross is at his most menacingly disturbed yet he always seems to be having fun (and in on the joke) making for an entertaining film.  I kind of wished he had been in the film more.

Not a complete time waster but will provide a pretty entertaining night at the movies even if you forget about it the next day.

Film Review: DINOSAURUS! (1960)

It’s hard to pick on a film from the ‘60s as the visual FX are not as good and the plots usually pander to young audiences but if they have a charm then sometimes you can enjoy them regardless of all their faults which is how I look at Dinosaurus! (1960), a film I’ve always heard about but never really seen until now. 

It’s a really simple plot as an underground explosion near a Caribbean island unearths the remains of two dinosaurs and a friendly Neanderthal Man.  Bart Thompson (Ward Ramsey) and his construction crew remove the bodies of the two creatures from their underwater grave while the unscrupulous island manager Mike Hacker (Fred Engelberg) finds the body of the Neanderthal Man and tries to hide it in order to make a profit.  During a nighttime lightning storm the bodies are resurrected by the lightning and the two creatures and Neanderthal Man run loose on the island.  The Neanderthal Man befriends a young boy by the name of Julio (

Alan Roberts) who helps them all put an end to the dinosaur menace once and for all.

Original idea for the film goes to Jack H. Harris and the film is written by Dan E. Weisburd and Jean Yeaworth who create a very kid friendly dinosaur adventure.  The film was definitely designed to appeal to the younger crowd but has enough adventure for the older crowd as well (at the time).  Although very dated, the film has a charm of innocence like that of the television show Land of the Lost and is something you’d now find on Saturday mornings for young children.  It’s more of a time piece for children from a by-gone era when dinosaurs were exciting and not as terrifying as they are in the more recent Jurassic Park films.