Dark Haul

It is a low budget movie, and it certainly shows.

Nonetheless, I find it enjoyable. It has a interesting story with originality, and the cast is good.

I stumbled upon the 2014 movie "Dark Haul" here in 2021. And needless to say that I had never heard about the movie prior to getting to sit down to watch it. Since I hadn't already seen it, of course I opted to give the movie a chance.

When I saw the SyFy logo on the screen, my hopes for this being possibly an entertaining or cheesy enough movie sort of went out the window.

And true enough, "Dark Haul" is your average SyFy dribble, for better or worse. Sure there is an audience out there for these movies, and every now and again SyFy does manage to churn out something worthwhile watching. "Dark Haul", however, wasn't one such movie.

The storyline told in "Dark Haul", as written by Ben Crane was essentially some very generic and mundane stuff. Things that have been seen and done before in other movies, and often so with more success. So director Colin Theys didn't really deliver a wholesome movie experience here.

The acting in the movie was as to be expected for a movie such as this. And you have Tom Sizemore on the cast list, which pretty much indicates the standard of what you are in for.

And this being a typical SyFy movie, you know you are in for some dubious special effects. And yeah, the CGI effects in "Dark Haul" were laughable to say the least. Imagine computer game graphics from the mid-1990s, and you have the level of CGI in the movie.

I endured about an hour of "Dark Haul", then I hauled myself out of the movie. I just couldn't take anymore of the generic dribble that passed by on the screen.

My rating of "Dark Haul" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Being transported to a new location, a Jersey Devil and his half-human sister see the trip as a chance to escape capture and lead the crew deep into their forested home where they launch a terrifying battle to save each other.

This one's not so bad and really does have some decent parts about it. One of the better qualities to this one is the fact that it tends to not only utilize the grossly-underused Jersey Devil as a main creature here without really making sure that it brings about the film's few instances of rather dynamic qualities because of that. The back-story, as well as the interplay between the two due to their familial relationship, makes for quite a unique take on the monster while still giving off the traditional elements found in those movies which is where this one scores quite well. That also leaves the second half to become quite a bit more fun here with this one generating most of it's good action scenes with the full force coming into play here with a thrilling escape scene, numerous ambushes along the dash to freedom and the whole thing being augmented by the tense stand-off in the cottage which is where this one really comes into great use with a particularly exciting series of brawls with the creature as it wipes them out one-by-one while also engaging in the inner discord among the trapped gang who have her among them and the distrust she manufactures by being there. That continuing plot-thread, despite being on the biggest harms to the movie by clearly being obvious about her intents which cause her captors with supposedly plenty of experience dealing with her to look like the biggest bunch of morons for being so oblivious, here works in the film's favor by ramping up the tension in the moment quite well and allowing for even more good to come from these scenes beyond the high-quality action and body count delivered already. That growing distrust among the group towards her does cause this some good elsewhere as it provides plenty of action throughout as the requirement for her to be around in order to control the more demonic being allows for a lot of great confrontations here with the opening chase through the factory and the later encounter at the diner which turns into a somewhat-decent car chase gives this a really unique look while also giving off plenty of action throughout here. That still doesn't make up for the films' one big flaw, which is the aforementioned inability to make out how she continually initiates everything despite repeated claims to the contrary that she's on their side and getting everything started which causes them to look woefully ineffective despite having tons of experience guarding her. It makes this come off a little more stupid than it really should, but overall this is still a solid creature feature.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

I am not a huge fan of made for syfy type movies. Other those with some pseudo science asteroids or magnetic problems with the earth type things they generally suck. However Dark Haul was different. First of all it kept my interest through the entire film and it was action packed. Second , there was more of a sense of history and mystery than most such movies. Evalena Marie puts in an amazingly strong performance as well. The movie also wasn't entirely predictable. I do agree with other review points that the editing could have been a tad better and the movie a bit shorter and a bit more backstory but overall the movie was way better than the usual fare.

I saw this movie years ago, but the memories are still there, apparently, because for some reason I thought about this train wreck today. It's your standard anti-Christ good vs bad hackneyed pseudo-religious jumbled mess muddled through the clogged filter of the brilliant minds behind the Syfy channel.

The anti-Christ (AC) character was born during the sepia film era of New Jersey. I don't remember which century, but I do recall the actors not bothering with accents that might have suited the time period. AC's sister Zip or Sip or something equally improbable is supernatural herself and the only one who can control him. And by control I mean helpfully yelling "Stop!" after AC had brutally massacred a half dozen nameless extras. Who these guys are and how they got roped into AC guard duty is never explained. One doubts a job posting for such a position would get many applicants. Maybe they offer dental.

Anyway, our heroes, who by the way are to the man total jerks, decide to take AC and his sister on a road trip to Pennsylvania. I can't recall the reason. Something to do with an expiring Cracker Barrel gift card or something. It doesn't matter, they never needed to apply for a PA filming permit. The semi they're carrying AC in breaks down for some reason, AC escapes, the same extras are killed a few more times, and then the spoiler ending happens. By which I mean the ending spoils the entire reason for the movie.

Two stars for not being forgettable, despite my best efforts.