Dark Heaven

I have waited for a new horror offering from Douglas Schulze for a long time. He made this creepy little gem called Hellmaster way back in 1992 and after that seemed to drop from the face of film-making. So finally, in 2004 I pick up this movie at my local video store with intriguing box art (which is usually deceiving) and low and behold Douglas Schulze is credited as writer/director. I'm amazed and perplexed how this one escaped my knowledge so I have to rent it. However, I am less than pleased with the results. At the beginning I was very pleased. Dark Heaven started out great. It was amazingly quiet and visually impressive. It was so just so stylish and very much like Silent Hill. Creepy in other words. But the film falls apart about halfway through with its lack of logic. I understand that Schulze was probably going for a dreamlike quality based on the ending of the film, but everything seemed to flow up until the middle. So it was almost good. From listening to the director's commentary I found out Dark Heaven was in production for something like four or more years and I believe that's where the film suffered. It seemed like they just shot a piece here and there whenever their people were available. Maybe that's why it ceased to flow. Schulze obviously has the ability to direct a creepfest, now if only he could get proper funding and a proper schedule. I wouldn't overlook this film completely because it does has some genuinely eerie moments and a solid cast.

This film was truly terrible. Besides the special effects being far, far, far below par, the story itself was very poorly done. The main character seemed oblivious to logic and common sense thru-out the entire film. The viewer is not allowed to discover or learn anything for himself, instead everything is spoon-fed to him. The characters themselves were shallow and one dimensional. Things that should have been explained are left in the air and things that were easily decipherable were explained to the most minute detail. And the story concept in itself, while good on paper just doesn't play well in live action.

When all is said and done, I think you would have more fun smacking your hand with a hammer.

Amen! to all the others who have spoken before and gave this movie the boot. This was a tragic waste of celluloid. My time would have been better spent alphabetizing the magazines in the bathroom. This movie was only 'apocalyptic' because those of us who wasted our time watching it kept wishing the world would end. The acting was horrible. In the moments I managed to stay awake, the weak interpretation of revelations look like a bad version of the 'Left Behind' series. I couldn't tell if Doug Schulze was trying to get us to recapture our lost faith or run from it. If saving souls is the goal, may these reviews be your salvation and spare your poor soul from viewing this pathetic attempt at a movie.

I just rented Dark Heaven at Blockbuster and boy was it a waste. After seeing the cover, I thought it was an erotic drama but discovered it was a religious horror film with no horror. Bland and sad, there's no reason to watch it. You could always go play DIABLO or put on your goth makeup. The films plot is a about a man stuck between heaven and heck. My mom still doesn't allow me to say the H-word and she's in the room so bear with me. Anyways, we learn more about the man in flashback but we get hardly any people talking. What's the deal? The film is slow, slow, slow.........slow. Completely depressing from beginning to end. The sets look nice, however. The film would have been great if the director, Doug Schultze, had been able to come up with an interesting premise. He could have either done that or got Triple H to star in it. Triple H is AWESOME!!!! I'd get somebody to loan you this movie if you really want to see it. Now I've got to go, my wrestling show is on. Safety!

i bought this for 5.50 at wal-mart, because, as stated by other users, the box art caught my eye. The box cover is about the only good part. I dunno if it was because i was tired, or because we had to have the volume at level 100 (what the hell is wrong with the audio on this DVD) to understand it a little, but this movie was kinda lame. That angel monster fight scene was real bad. It just had lots of weird camera shots that were artsy.

So it seemed like the director/writers were like "lets film a bunch of scenes of a cop walking around looking dumb holding a shotgun and call it a movie>"