Dark Summer

Realistic expectations are important. You can't expect a fine dining experience at a fast food place. You can't expect an overnight stay in a small town to be as stimulating as a week in Greece. And you can't expect a straight-to-streaming movie made by relative unknowns to crack your list of all-time favorite movies.

With the proper perspective, however, this movie isn't bad. In fact, I'd say it's better than most of the scores of straight-to-streaming movies I see each month.

The actors were watchable, the direction was excellent and the story was just a little more interesting than that of the average teen psycho horror tripe.

It's like Disturbia. Or perhaps I should say you might be led to believe it should be like Disturbia, but completely different. One way is how it starts out. If you'll recall, in Disturbia we got to see the accident that killed the protagonist's father and the incident that set him off. In Dark Summer we pick up a story that already seems to be in progress and we discover the back-story in pieces so that initially we won't have any sympathy or understanding for our protagonist. The emotional connection comes later.

The pacing is leisurely and the atmosphere is dark. On the surface it's about a young man is under house-arrest so the movie gives you a sense of his boredom and isolation.

The script, however, is taut. There are only five characters. Actually more like four and half or four and an asterisk.

Without giving away any surprises, let me just say two commendable things about the story: the relationship between the protagonist and his obsession gets interesting; and fifteen minutes into most movies I can usually tell you how it's going to end, but this one surprised me. I thought for sure the mystery would have one particular solution. It didn't.

I really liked Stella Maeve's Abby character and Peter Stormare's Stokes character was just enigmatic enough to be interesting. The Mona Wilson character was, I assume, intentionally ambiguous and Keir Gilchrist played a plausibly sympathetic but not too sympathetic antihero.

The only character that really disappointed me was Kevin, played by Maestro Harrell. He played it well, but outside of one intelligent repartee with the protagonist, you almost wonder what he was there for other than to be the obligatory token black friend. Having accomplished so much and with such attention to detail, you'd think the scriptwriters and film makers would've tried a little harder to make this character more than just a cliché. But here again, you can't expect too much from a straight-to-streaming teen psycho horror movie.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. I think most viewers will be too, unless they're expecting to be blown away.

Hated by some horror geeks, loved by others, it's such a strange flick. Is it really a horror, well, in some ways it does but it's more about supernatural things going on or what's going on in one's mind. So don't think you will see a gory flick or will have jump scenes. What you will get is following the sick person for over 35 minutes. What he can do and what he can't do but towards the end it do offer some scenes that can offer some horror.

Some shots are done in an arty way, have a look to the girl being shot in the pool, done in a really arty way.

I still don't know what to think about it, for me it wasn't that bad after all but once summer is over I will have forgotten this flick...

Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

To start off, lately I've started to watch lower rated movies to find the hidden gems that may be out there. This experience led me to Dark Summer.

While the concept of the movie is intriguing, the movie itself fell short. The acting was not the greatest, however also not the worst. Possibly with a better script we could have seen some breathtaking shots from them unfortunately that's just not so. The camera work involves too many close ups, most of which are unnecessary, but is otherwise decently done.

For a horror/thriller the movie is just not there.

Wow! Just wow.... How in the world did this movie ever make it out of someone's horrible, drug-induced imagination into a film? First of all, I couldn't even begin to allow myself to understand or comprehend what this "movie" was supposed to be about, thanks to the AWFUL soundtrack that was so distracting, annoying, and what may be: the most terrible piece OF CRAP that was ever to be produced! The music producer to this garbage should be fired & never be allowed to cause further torment, headaches & ear damage to poor, unsuspecting viewers. It's painfully obvious the score was trying to imitate a Trent Reznor style, but doesn't even begin to come close to being SO FAR AWAY from it! The soundtrack definitely ruins what positive aspects there may be to the film, it's THAT BAD!! As for the actual movie itself- Maybe it's OK, if you're heavily sedated on some kind of mind-altering drug! The whole pretense of the film MIGHT have been decent, MIGHT have been almost watch-able, if it weren't for the shaky camera, sub-par, terrible acting of one of the most important characters in a horror film- the ghost! How she landed the role-is beyond me, as she is completely unconvincing and actually brings a cheesy, amateur, homemade feel to the already poorly directed film. There really is nothing worth giving a a good review about this movie. The actors are forgettable, the make-up/visuals are not even worth mentioning, and the soundtrack....I don't even want to go there again! If the writer to this story had different direction, it could have been a somewhat decent flick, but unfortunately, this was a COMPLETE FAIL-all the way around!!! Don't waste your time & if you do; have plenty of Advil & Xanax handy for the headache & frustration you'll get.

I would have given a a higher rating if it hadn't been as slow as it was, but given that, it kept my attention and was worth waiting for. The acting was very good. Not the usual awkward moments you see in low budget films. No stupid cats jumping out of the closet, or music that ruins the moment by trying to make it seem even scarier. Some of the scenes caught me by surprise. Was it the best horror film I've ever seen? No, but I felt it was chilling and suspenseful. There was some gore, but not over the top so if a splatter-fest is your thing, this may not fill the bill. If you're more into psychological thrillers, this could do it for you. Be sure to watch through the credits to the end. All in all, a pretty entertaining horror film. Give it a watch!