Dark Haul

It is a low budget movie, and it certainly shows.

Nonetheless, I find it enjoyable. It has a interesting story with originality, and the cast is good.

I am not a huge fan of made for syfy type movies. Other those with some pseudo science asteroids or magnetic problems with the earth type things they generally suck. However Dark Haul was different. First of all it kept my interest through the entire film and it was action packed. Second , there was more of a sense of history and mystery than most such movies. Evalena Marie puts in an amazingly strong performance as well. The movie also wasn't entirely predictable. I do agree with other review points that the editing could have been a tad better and the movie a bit shorter and a bit more backstory but overall the movie was way better than the usual fare.

I stumbled upon the 2014 movie "Dark Haul" here in 2021. And needless to say that I had never heard about the movie prior to getting to sit down to watch it. Since I hadn't already seen it, of course I opted to give the movie a chance.

When I saw the SyFy logo on the screen, my hopes for this being possibly an entertaining or cheesy enough movie sort of went out the window.

And true enough, "Dark Haul" is your average SyFy dribble, for better or worse. Sure there is an audience out there for these movies, and every now and again SyFy does manage to churn out something worthwhile watching. "Dark Haul", however, wasn't one such movie.

The storyline told in "Dark Haul", as written by Ben Crane was essentially some very generic and mundane stuff. Things that have been seen and done before in other movies, and often so with more success. So director Colin Theys didn't really deliver a wholesome movie experience here.

The acting in the movie was as to be expected for a movie such as this. And you have Tom Sizemore on the cast list, which pretty much indicates the standard of what you are in for.

And this being a typical SyFy movie, you know you are in for some dubious special effects. And yeah, the CGI effects in "Dark Haul" were laughable to say the least. Imagine computer game graphics from the mid-1990s, and you have the level of CGI in the movie.

I endured about an hour of "Dark Haul", then I hauled myself out of the movie. I just couldn't take anymore of the generic dribble that passed by on the screen.

My rating of "Dark Haul" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Being transported to a new location, a Jersey Devil and his half-human sister see the trip as a chance to escape capture and lead the crew deep into their forested home where they launch a terrifying battle to save each other.

This one's not so bad and really does have some decent parts about it. One of the better qualities to this one is the fact that it tends to not only utilize the grossly-underused Jersey Devil as a main creature here without really making sure that it brings about the film's few instances of rather dynamic qualities because of that. The back-story, as well as the interplay between the two due to their familial relationship, makes for quite a unique take on the monster while still giving off the traditional elements found in those movies which is where this one scores quite well. That also leaves the second half to become quite a bit more fun here with this one generating most of it's good action scenes with the full force coming into play here with a thrilling escape scene, numerous ambushes along the dash to freedom and the whole thing being augmented by the tense stand-off in the cottage which is where this one really comes into great use with a particularly exciting series of brawls with the creature as it wipes them out one-by-one while also engaging in the inner discord among the trapped gang who have her among them and the distrust she manufactures by being there. That continuing plot-thread, despite being on the biggest harms to the movie by clearly being obvious about her intents which cause her captors with supposedly plenty of experience dealing with her to look like the biggest bunch of morons for being so oblivious, here works in the film's favor by ramping up the tension in the moment quite well and allowing for even more good to come from these scenes beyond the high-quality action and body count delivered already. That growing distrust among the group towards her does cause this some good elsewhere as it provides plenty of action throughout as the requirement for her to be around in order to control the more demonic being allows for a lot of great confrontations here with the opening chase through the factory and the later encounter at the diner which turns into a somewhat-decent car chase gives this a really unique look while also giving off plenty of action throughout here. That still doesn't make up for the films' one big flaw, which is the aforementioned inability to make out how she continually initiates everything despite repeated claims to the contrary that she's on their side and getting everything started which causes them to look woefully ineffective despite having tons of experience guarding her. It makes this come off a little more stupid than it really should, but overall this is still a solid creature feature.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Better made and acted than most SyFy originals, this was nonetheless a film that had all the earmarks of a "first draft." Like most flicks, its too long. Just chop off the first useless 15 minutes and start with the shot of Sizemore grabbing Marie's shackled ankle and you'd have the audience going, "Now what's up with this situation? Who are these people? What did she do wrong that she has this device on her." Instead, the first 15 minutes show that the demon, even as an infant, can fly, is lethal, and impossible to kill (but you can trap it under a box).

Fast forward hundreds of years of pseudo-Christians looking after, er guarding, um whatever, the two demons, one who wants to free her demon-brother and the other who, once freed, just wants to kill (!).

The humans in charge of this duo never grasp that Zib (Zib? yup, Zib) should be sedated at all times and that Zub (well, he doesn't have a name, so why not Zub?) should be sealed in concrete and dropped in the ocean. Instead, Zib and Zub are kept in close proximity because Zib is supposed to be able to control Zub, though the words, "He's getting to strong to control," is something she says whenever Zub needs to be controlled. So much for fulfilling your basic job description, Zib.

Ah, but we have the gibberish of the 13th of the 13th and man vs beast and all that. Who cares? As for the trained, armed men and women who are supposed to know how to catch Zub if he escapes, something Zub keeps doing thanks to Zib, they must have missed several training classes. For the most part, this trained crew can't make it through an 8-hour shift without being impaled, shot by their own, or thrown hundreds of feet (often all three).

Special: Tom Sizemore drinking game. Sizemore must say at least 47 times that "I know how to kill it." If you take a shot each time, you won't have to make it to the end of the movie where it turns out he doesn't actually seem to know how to kill it.

When the highlight of the movie is a tractor trailer overturning, you've got problems.