A Darker Reality

This is the story of a serial killer and torturer of women known as The Ghost. There is a cop dedicated to finding him and saving the women he has in his torture dungeon before he can kill them. There is also a shrink that is trying to get information from one woman that survived and escaped him. This movie could have been so much better. I do not know if it was the writing, directing or editing that failed here, but someone failed. There were some tense moments and I must say that I was happy with how it ended. I saw a few reviews where the author was not happy, because without giving away too much, this film does not have the traditional happy ending.

One thing that always gets me in movies like this is the attention to some details, while completely blowing it with others. My case in this film was one of the girls had been held captive for a while, how long is never said. They made her teeth look like they had not seen a decent brushing in a while. Good detail. The girls were filthy, clearly had not been given the opportunity to shower for their entire time there, yet all were clean shaven. I know it goes against modern views on how women should look, but filmmakers really need to start paying attention to such details. Women that are stranded or held captive do not have perfect hair and make-up (anything from Gilligan's Island to Lost) and they certainly do not groom themselves, like in this film.

Oh, and try not to pay attention to the microphone packs that several of the actors wear in this, how they missed that is beyond me.

Having sat through such horror offerings as August Underground, A Serbian Film, all the Vomit Gore movies, the recent American Guinea Pig, Subconscious Cruelty, Melancholie Der Engel etc I guess you could say I'm at the pinnacle of ultimate horror experience. It doesn't really go above those movies unless you want to venture into real footage of humanities follies and Darker Reality just isn't up there with the big boys. That said, its surprisingly decent. The cop scenes are very pedestrian as a few others have said, but the victim and antagonist scenes are quite effective. The acting is easily an 8 on the 10 scale. I don't know what it is about those Baldwin brothers but all of them disgust me a little bit, their big fat faces and clunky look, so having one of them in here helped the plot for me, Daniel Baldwin is pretty good in this. A lot of the film actually doesn't show any physical body harm at all, most scenes are after the fact, or relayed via other means, but there are many shots of chained up women in a very distressed state and i really liked how they had the females adapt to their situation trying to stop each other screaming or doing anything that would bring the killer back into the room they were incarcerated in. As a whole, the film works pretty well, and I can see how for many here it was too much, but for those into the more extreme horror or those that enjoyed films like The Seasoning House, you'll probably love this. Grim, disturbing, and a little bit nasty. Ooh yeah! :-)

A cop is investigating crimes by a serial killer. A woman somehow escaped the killer's clutches and is in the hospital. There the cop runs into an attractive psychiatrist looking into the case. But as usual, he's got to be a jerk about working with someone else. She warns him that the girl is too traumatized and won't talk to some tough cop. And she's right. The girl opens up to her and we see the things the killer makes the girls he kidnaps go through. And it's pretty nasty stuff.

We also learn about the killer. He's got a slow brother that helps out. He gives long speeches to the victims and all this came about by how he was treated by his mother. The focus now shifts entirely to the girls in the basement, and how they gather strength and are able to do something about their situation. But from the escaped girl, we learn something else. We learn that the killer has a next victim in mind.

A Darker Reality surprised me. I wasn't expecting much. It has a 90s B movie look and feel to it. But it does have the courage to take psychological terror to a new level and it's pretty uncompromising about it.

Usually I have a strong stomach for gore and guts... but this movie is just disturbing. I hope to God there is no one alive that would actually be that depraved. THe acting of the girls was very convincing , you felt their pain, the acting of everyone else was boring and uninteresting. I wonder why well known actors would take on this kind of movie. If the point of the movie was to make the make you want to vomit over the reality that this could actually happen, then it rates a 10. I couldn't watch the whole thing. I felt depraved even watching as much as I did, if I would have watched the entire movie I would feel like I was OK with what was happening... guess you'll have to watch it and decide for yourself.

While A DARKER REALITY is the very definition of what many would call "Torture Porn," it is not nearly as disturbing as many would have us believe. I was expecting much worse, and in all honesty, hoping for much worse. To me, A DARKER REALITY is very far from reality. That is the main reason I don't view it as a very disturbing film. I'm not saying that some of the content is not disturbing, it's just not portrayed in a real way. Yes, women are tortured and they do suffer, but much of the suffering is them just chained up together trying to figure out how to survive. I'm not trying to take anything away from this film, or for that matter I'm not trying to lessen the disturbing parts. Many people will find this film quite disturbing, but for those of us who have "seen it all," so to speak, will not be that disturbed by its content. In my eyes, it's neither a bad film nor a great film. It's just a bit above average, especially considering it was only made for an estimated $500,000.

So in conclusion, A DARKER REALITY is not for everyone. If watching women being tortured will disturb you, then stay clear. While I have seen much more disturbing films, a lot of people have not and will not like this film, hence its 3.6 rating at the time of this review. Remember...it's only a movie. If you have sat through films such as HOSTEL or SAW, then you shouldn't have much trouble sitting through this one. Not that A DARKER REALITY is as good as either of those films, because it's not, but...well, you get the point (hopefully). I think I've rambled on long enough. A DARKER REALITY is a decent film in the "Torture Porn" category, better than a lot of others. I give it a solid 6 out of 10. Worth at least 1 viewing, if you like these kind of films.