Darkroom: encierro mortal

Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) finds herself trapped in a rather foreboding, dimly lit mansion terrorized by a sinister family after taking a job recommendation (the last you'll the word recommendation in regards to this boring little film, by the way, but I digress) A majority of the film is told in flashbacks, meandering, badly acted,excruciatingly dull flashbacks. I suspect to pad the rather thin material that the movie does possess. So what we have is what could've been a passable short film (that's being extremely generous) stretched out to a dreary, sleep-inducing sub-par saw-ripoff feature film. I hesitate to give this film a 1 because I have seen worse, but not by much.

Darkroom (There Are No Links to Purchase this movie on DVD).

This was written by two-time writer Michaelbrent Collings, and directed by Britt Napier. This was Napier's debut as a director. The cast consists of Britne Oldford as Jean, Christian Campbell as Larry, Tobias Segal as Daniel, Elisabeth Rohm as Rachal, and stars Kaylee Defer as Michelle -- whom I loved in Red State.

The pros about this film. There are many. The quality of filming is outstanding. The scenes are tight, and dramatic. The dark and light contrast works. The video footage is done well. The acting by each of those listed above, very well done. And this is rare in horror films. But I applaud all performances. The director did a great job of telling the story. The story, sick and twisted, and pretty solid.

The cons. I wish there weren't any. I really wanted to like this film. But over all, I didn't really care either way. And for me the issue came down to pacing.

In Darkroom, Michelle is locked away in an institution for being wasted while driving and causing an accident that killed three of her friends. Her counselor, Rachel, wants to help -- but if Michelle won't open up about the past, then she doesn't see Michelle getting released any time soon. Jean, on the other hand, is new to the group, and due to full participation, is quickly released. This upsets Michelle.

Rachel helps those in the institution by getting them work with a "friend." The giant mansion is a photo studio for models. Only it's really a torture asylum for those who sin and refuse to repent. Run by a sick family of siblings (Larry, Daniel and surprise-surprise Rachel), they lock women in the basement and convince them that confessing and admitting sin is the only way to forgiveness and salvation. There is still no escape, but at least you can die knowing you are now right with God.

Trapped in a basement room with a television (to watch the horrors unfold against other sinners) Michelle realizes that she ... and Jean, are in a lot of trouble. The only trouble is, pacing. It is 24 minutes into this short 81 minute movie before anything "really" happens, and even once it does start happening there is a viewer-disconnect. I didn't feel any sense of ... urgency on behalf of anyone in the film. Neither to torture, or escape . . . Again, the actors did a great job. I think the writing and directing were good, too. There just seemed to be something lacking.

There is plenty of violence. A lot of use of drills, box cutters and wrenches. There is partial nudity, and some "bad" language. All in all, I can only give Darkroom 3 out of 5 Tombstones.

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After a deadly car accident with three victims, the traumatized Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) is sent to a group therapy with Rachel (Elisabeth Röhm). She recovers from the trauma and Rachel recommends that Michelle needs to work to prove that is healed. Rachel gives a card with a job opportunity at the company called "Darkroom Inc.". Michelle arrives at a mansion and is hired, but soon she discovers that she is trapped inside the house with other girls and three deranged and sadistic siblings that intend to purge her from her sins.

"Darkroom" is an awful torture movie with a messy non-linear screenplay and one-dimensional characters. Unfortunately I glanced at the bad reviews (100%) but I decided to give a chance to "Darkroom" and watch this terrible film. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Casa do Medo" ("Fear House")

Telling the story of a girl in a rehab centre who is offered a job that turns out to be her kidnapping and torture from religious zealots.

Though the films production values are decent, the quality of the writing cannot be accused of the same.

Messy generic plot that is as interesting as a 3 week old banana peel, instantly forgettable stuff.

Elisabeth Rohm stars and I can't figure out for the life of me why, she is so above this tosh.

With not a redeeming feature to its name Darkroom is not what I expected at all and sadly not something worth acknowledging again.

The Good:

Production values are decent

Elisabeth Rohm

The Bad:

Incredibly dull

No originality

Predictible

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion

had decent expectations going into this one but was disappointed. The premise is interesting, and was sort of expecting a Saw vibe but yeah not here. The worst part is the main problems are things that could of easily been fixed before the camera started rolling. The script wasn't that great to begin with, good job from some of the actors to make the most of what they were working with. The decision working in flashbacks was a really bad one, and making the decision to provide no relatable or redeeming qualities for the main protagonist doesn't help. Everything just feels flat. The good - some of the actors showed some skills working with the limited material they were given. I wish they would of fleshed out the main protagonist more. The cinematography was actually really good for the most part, which makes the errors so much worse since they really could of had a much better film. The sound and effects were pretty good to. Really this film serves as a great example of why you should measure twice and cut once, because with better pre-production and better decision making this could of been a much better film.