Terror na Escuridão

i thought this film was actually quite good. i watched it on 'zone horror', which usually airs low budget gore-fests (not a bad thing, i love em), so i was surprised to find this film which contained minimal guts, a couple of scares and was quite intelligent. i thought it had original ideas, in a genre which has spawned film after film of teen horror flicks which follow the same pattern over and over. i found the soul takers creepy, without being jump-behind-the-couch-pray-for-your-life scary. i did, however, guess the end ALL along, but I've spent my life watching this sort of thing, so i guess 99.9% of anything i watch.

if your the sort of person who likes a good scare, without all the gore and jumps most films have, i'd recommend this one. and in fact, as a person who DOES like all the gore and the scares, i still liked it.

Pretty 21-year-old Celia (Monica Keena, who is very good at appearing traumatized, confused and panicked) goes to a frat party where a creep uses a date-rape drug on her. She dies from an overdose and awakens in a ghostly parallel world which, in spite of a lot of exposition, never gets as much of an explanation as it needs. She can see what's happening in the "real" world in mirrors and other reflective surfaces, but she can't figure out the complicated rules for getting into heaven, especially with all the demon-zombie types chasing her around. She is advised by a smug, inscrutable guy named Donovan (David Anders, who is perfect in the role) who claims to be the ghost who has been invisibly protecting her since childhood, formerly a child himself. Which begs the question: how and why would a person who died at age 8 grow into an adult after death? Celia's grandpa (the great Tim Thomerson) keeps popping in and out, sometimes as his kindly old self and sometimes as a snarling gray-faced corpse. In a real creative lowpoint, the ghoulies are called "soul eaters". This movie has a great professional look but is too complicated for its own good and violates its own internal logic on several occasions. If the dead "can't affect the living", as we're told, then how was the Donovan character able to pick Celia up and lift her out of the way of a speeding car when she was alive? And how is Donovan able to physically touch Celia right after he explains that nobody in the ghost dimension can touch her without her touching them first? Why didn't Donovan od something to prevent her being raped and murdered in the first place? These and other inconsistencies will probably distract you from the confused plot, but at least there's plenty of action and danger to propel things along. Swear words are used awkwardly in places that might cause unwanted laughter. The ending seems to imply that the story's most evil character has adopted a new identity in preparation for a future attempt on the soul of Celia's bimbo roommate, but this point isn't made clear. In fact, a lot of points aren't made clear. What was the bit about Celia's father thrown in there for? Why did he leave her, what was the nature of his briefly mentioned "sickness", and why did the writers think it was worth bothering with to have him make a quick appearance in the afterlife? Even with the "caught between life and death" theme, the movie doesn't have the intentional dreamlike feel of a story left deliberately illogical and surreal in the manner of CARNIVAL OF SOULS or JACOB'S LADDER; instead, it plays out like a script full of loose ends, cluttered with unhelpful details. Maybe viewers were meant to see it as the heroine's dream or delusion, rather than anything really happening in an actual place. The afterlife depicted in the BEETLEJUICE movies is more coherent than the one seen here. Though sloppy and admittedly no classic, LEFT IN DARKNESS is entertaining enough to watch and is certainly not among the worst horror efforts you've seen. Or maybe I should say it's not among the worst I've seen.

Left in Darkness wasn't actually all that bad of a film. The description on the back left me very wary of what I was about to watch. The beginning was rather odd with the star as a little girl whose deafness to her grandfathers recommendations didn't bode well for a long life. The dreaded rape scene wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be, considering what some twisted directors have done with the subject. The story is about a woman who is raised by her grandparents after her mother dies giving birth and father disappears. She is killed at an animal house type of party by the typical drunken sociopath frat boys. She wakes up dead between heaven and hell and must fight for her soul using vague clues given to her by dead relatives and a guardian angel of sorts. It moves relatively quickly and has some good horror scenes. The editing was good and the camera work was good. The dialog was a little flat. The acting wasn't too bad and there were some seasoned actors in bit parts.

I thought this movie would be a lot better especially since a lot of the other Stephen J. Cannell straight to DVD movies i've seen were pretty good.Ones like It lives,the garden and room 6 were enjoyable but left in darkness was a good script and good idea but it reminded me more of an all ages movie that you would see on TV.The score was more like a Disney movie and the acting was OK but not great.It was just not scary.I can't believe Steve and the director actually thought it was scary when they said it was in the making of or behind the scenes extra feature.The character of Donovan was the worst written because when he died he was an 8 year old boy,so why was he 20 something all of a sudden when Celia died.I didn't realize you aged after you died.I assumed you stayed the same age.Also why was he her guardian angel while she was alive,and then a demon or devil when she dies.That whole part was stupid and made no sense.It would have made more sense if she met Donovan again as an 8 year old boy the way he appeared to her in a cemetery.But aging him and making him evil is just very inconsistent.And as if a little girl is going to fly through the air after nearly being hit by a car.The monsters looked more like something from a sci-fi or fantasy movie not a horror.It was very predictable and not well executed.I have seen movies with way lower budgets that are actually scary and seemed believable.This one was more of a disappointment.

Celia (Monica Keena of "Freddy vs. Jason") has always felt lots of guilt over the fact that her mother died giving birth to her. Now, as a young adult, she's mourning the recent death of her grandfather Joe (the legendary Tim Thomerson of the "Trancers" series), who raised her after her worthless father took a powder. She celebrates her 21st birthday by going to a wild frat party where she has the worst, and final, night of her life: she is drugged, raped, and dies of an overdose.

Now stuck in some kind of netherworld, she has to navigate her surroundings, not sure if she should follow the advice of her guardian angel Donovan (David Anders of 'Alias'), who saved her life as a child. While she tries to figure out how to get to Heaven, she must avoid beings known as "soul eaters".

This well-intentioned but resolutely average horror movie does subvert conventions in some ways (it's not really about righting wrongs committed in real life). But it spends too much time laying on the exposition and the ground rules (which is basically Donovans' job). Occasionally, there are some interesting visuals, and director Steven R. Monroe ("It Waits", "I Spit on Your Grave" 1 and 2, "The Exorcism of Molly Hartley") gives it a reasonable amount of atmosphere and pace. It gets most of its mileage from the sincere lead performance by Keena, and from the participation of ever-reliable Thomerson. Anders is fairly amusing in his role; Jessica Stroup ("The Hills Have Eyes II"), Chris Engen ('The Young and the Restless'), and Travis Van Winkle ("Friday the 13th" '09) co-star. Former "Bad Seed" Patty McCormack has a cameo as Celias' grandmother. And that's co-producer Stephen J. Cannells' daughter Chelsea as Tawnia.

Overall, this viewer would have to say that while he has seen worse than this, he's also seen better.

Five out of 10.