Darkroom

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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A young woman kills three people in a car accident, apparently after drinking too much alcohol. She is injured quite badly herself, including no doubt psychologically.

A crime of this nature warrants punishment, but someone is intent on seeing she is not simply punished but tortured, psychologically and physically. She is lured to an out of the way mansion on the pretext of a modelling assignment, but once there she is held captive and subjected to nightmarish treatment by a trio of religious fanatics, well, a duo and the weak member of this perverted family.

She is not the only one, two other girls are murdered. This film is disjointed, with flashbacks to the accident, but has no real plot except sadism for its own sake.

"Michelle" (Kaylee DeFer) is a young woman who was recently involved in a deadly car accident which killed three of her friends. As a result she is in therapy in order to come to terms with her emotional trauma. After finally being able to open up and talk about her traumatic experiences she manages to acquire a job working for a company called "Darkroom Incorporated" which operates out of an isolated mansion. Now, rather than detail any more of the plot and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that her new employers are keeping a very dark secret which she is totally unprepared for upon her arrival. Having said that, although this film had a couple of surprising scenes I can't say that I actually enjoyed the overall movie that much. Not only did I find the plot to be extremely crude and one-dimensional but I also thought that the talented cast was terribly wasted. Quite bluntly, it was torture to watch and I cannot think of any reason to recommend this movie to anyone. Definitely below average.

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.

I did not expect a lot from this film, but I received more then I expected. Actually I was pleasantly surprised.

For this type of film it is really very well done film.

Plot is interesting, I mean I expected from a horror film to be a horror film and it delivered. There was a lot of blood and that type of stuff. Good old horror stuff! Cinemtaography was surprisingly good, and acting was rather good for those young actors I did not hear from before.

All in all if you like horror films this is a film for you, I mean I saw so many bad horror films, this one is not that bad, so you probably will not waste time by watching it.