The Darkside

Don't waste your time. This is a 95 min bore. They try to compare it to Blue Velvet but NOT.

My review was written in May 1987 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"The Darkside" is an obnoxious Canadian exploitation film, wallowing in the same demeaning areas it simultaneously moralizes about.

Tony Galati toplines as a Toronto cabbie working the night shift who reluctantly saves a half-clad beautiful blonde (Cyndy Preston) from the clutches of a Cockney creep in a dinner jacket (John Tesch). She's running away from a gangster (Charles Loriot) who got her drunk and made a porno tape of her, which she hides in Tony's cab.

Corny story of everyone trying to get their hands on the tape unfolds at a leisurely pace, with filmmaker Constantino Magnatta pouring on the sleaze while taking potshots at the dastardly porno types. Pic is generally too tame for its subject matter and the only fun scene is a goofy sequence of some bikers (including a topless girl) chasing Tony through a rundown apartment. Elsewhere, he stupidly crosscuts between fast-forward footage of the dreaded porno tape and strictly tease footage of Galati and Preston in bed making love. The equation is mindless.

Despite the title and potential for film noir action, most of the pic takes place in the daytime and little Sin City atmosphere is generated. Tech credits are merely adequate. Acting by the lead couple is fine, but Loriot and Tesch ham it up as comic-strip villains.

This movie is obviously low budget but I did not care. I watched this movie purely on the fact that David Hewlett was in it. He is not a lead character but he does have some nice scenes. His character "Chuckie" does forward the plot - what there is of a plot.

If you are a David Hewlett fan then this movie IS worth watching - he made it when he was nineteen years old, and you can see that he had acquired a certain amount of acting skill even at this young age. He does make a credible drug addict. I would recommend this if you are a David Hewlett fan just so you can see he is not just Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis. Other reviewer have said that the other acting is not that good but I found it adequate to watch the movie. Enjoy.

Not only is this film outdated (1987) but I would rephrase the film not as low budget but NO budget. The Darkside's monologue was so one dimensional that I thought a bunch of high school film students could have written a better script on their lunch hour then what was presented here.

The evil villain laughed as if he were waiting for the film to start rolling so he was trying oh so hard to look realistic that it was pathetically overdone and amateurish. Throughout the film the co stars kept yelling the cab driver's name Tony, Tony, Tony, such that I wished someone would just kill Tony so I would not have to hear his name anymore.

I would stay away from this NO budget film unless you want to irritate anyone who happens to be watching the film with you. It's a sure bet they will find some excuse to leave so that they don't have to watch another minute of this awful film.

I give it a 2 out of 10 only because it was filmed in Toronto my hometown, otherwise it would have rated a 1 out of 10.