When Darkness Falls

(Watched as part of an early press screening)

Although I sat through the whole film, I felt it was an unfinished film. Nothing about it was good enough for home entertainment. It felt like a student film, although a student film would be better.

The narrative idea had a decent amount of potential, but Nathan Shepka executed it poorly. The quality was horrifc, acting just as bad.

The film poster i'd seen (Michaela Longdon looking in the mirror) was decent, proper thriller-esque poster. But looking at the poster on IMDB told me enough about how the film would play out.

Give it a huge miss is my advice, harsh but justifiable.

This is the worst movie I've ever seen, I'm pretty sure I made up more compelling and believable dialogue playing with my Star Wars figures when I 8 years old. The "acting" is slightly better than a first grade play and I'm only giving it that much credit because the actors were probably able to remember their lines. While watching this abomination I kept thinking to myself that this isn't how people talk or move because of how stiff everything is, nothing came off as having a natural flow, everything was just so forced. With most movies there is at least one character you like, not this one. Every character your supposed to empathize with or not have a feeling about one way or the other comes across as having stick permanently stuck up their ass. The sound is also god awful.

Two girls from America go hiking across the Scottish Highlands. Meanwhile two ne'er do wells are travelling across, robbing remote mansions and roofying local ladies. Of course both pairings will meet. Something about the immovable object meeting an unstoppable force? Starting with shades of American Werewolf without the werewolf, this then ventures into And Soon the Darkness meets Vanishing, before descending into a twist filled 90's cable thriller (in the best possible way). All it needed was Eric Roberts.

Despite a low budget, the film achieves its goals. A lot of micro budget cinema tends to feel very non-descript with their locations, often confining the action to a few cheap places and feeling like you could be anywhere. Not so here, as When Darkness Falls slowly builds, displaying sprawling Scottish backdrops (a rare abundance of drone shots which don't feel unnecessary) that are sparse and rugged. When Andrea disappears, Jess must find her in a landscape near devoid of people (and the few she meets are less than friendly). I won't say too much as the second act kicks off into a twisty turny pot boiler. Michaela Longden does a great job, as does Emma O'Hara. Director/producer/actor/editor/caterer? Nathan Shepka checks every role off with flying colours. The film looks great, the score is pleasingly Carpenter-esque, and despite the kind of rough edges that are unavoidable on something that was apparently shot for 25k (though looks substantially more), this really did entertain. The artwork and trailer intrigued me and I'm glad I took the punt.

There are less than 10 characters in this movie and all are ancillary except 5. Figure out the plot. Very poor acting. And just a ridiculous story too. I can't imagine ever leaving a friend in a bar with strange weird men and walking off into the country alone. This has way too high a rating and was one of the worst movies I've seen this year. It has a lot of ridiculous and silly dialogue on top of the poor acting. They also act like the women are far out alone in the country but you can see the road and a car going by. No attention to any detail on top of the poor plot. Very low budget and unwatchable.

This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. The plot is completely contrived and seems to be written by a writer whose goal was to introduce as many plot twists as he could and try to top the "wow factor" with each successive one. This made the film completely illogical. The acting was wooden and the fight scenes were completely unrealistic.

I've traveled internationally, and one of the most fundamental concepts anyone who's traveled overseas knows is research the culture and the particulars of where you are going. Here you have two female American women trekking through the Scottish countryside with barely a clue as to what they're doing. Separating in a small rural town where they know NO ONE is one of the most illogical things I can imagine.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one and save yourself one hour and forty-five minutes of your time!!!