Dark Heaven

This film was truly terrible. Besides the special effects being far, far, far below par, the story itself was very poorly done. The main character seemed oblivious to logic and common sense thru-out the entire film. The viewer is not allowed to discover or learn anything for himself, instead everything is spoon-fed to him. The characters themselves were shallow and one dimensional. Things that should have been explained are left in the air and things that were easily decipherable were explained to the most minute detail. And the story concept in itself, while good on paper just doesn't play well in live action.

When all is said and done, I think you would have more fun smacking your hand with a hammer.

The movie is one missed opportunity after another, you get no sense of the characters because the whole movie just constantly jumps one scene after another w/o any regard to good editing and the acting itself would be good if this was a porno. The whole movie is about dead ends, stating the obvious and what will end first, the movie or your patience with it.

Even the worst movies have that one part that is decent and this one has one as well, but nobody goes to see a movie for the hope of that one good part, so if it is on TV and you have nothing better to do go ahead and watch it, but, past that you are not missing anything.

Amen! to all the others who have spoken before and gave this movie the boot. This was a tragic waste of celluloid. My time would have been better spent alphabetizing the magazines in the bathroom. This movie was only 'apocalyptic' because those of us who wasted our time watching it kept wishing the world would end. The acting was horrible. In the moments I managed to stay awake, the weak interpretation of revelations look like a bad version of the 'Left Behind' series. I couldn't tell if Doug Schulze was trying to get us to recapture our lost faith or run from it. If saving souls is the goal, may these reviews be your salvation and spare your poor soul from viewing this pathetic attempt at a movie.

...and then the movie ended. I saw nothing in this movie that would have any value. I didn't find some deep meaning that made being bored worthwhile, it wasn't nice to look at (it looked really horrible, actually), it wasn't exciting... Maybe some people could find something in there. But I found nothing that justified me wasting my time and money. I thought House of the Dead was the worst movie I'd ever seen, but at least that had some of my attention with the violence and nudity. The best of that they've got in here is some red paint smeared around and an out-of-shape naked guy. I'm not saying I was watching for that. I can forgive either a bad but entertaining movie, or a good but slow movie. Not both of the bad sides in one. I was interested in the angels but they look like plastic statues and they squirt milk when you stab them. I only kept watching because I thought SOMETHING must happen but it was just a predictable ending. I didn't feel anything at the end because the main character said and did the most stupid things. I understand the whole faith thing but it doesn't seem like it was done well. I'm just an average viewer, and this movie was boring and meaningless to me.

I have waited for a new horror offering from Douglas Schulze for a long time. He made this creepy little gem called Hellmaster way back in 1992 and after that seemed to drop from the face of film-making. So finally, in 2004 I pick up this movie at my local video store with intriguing box art (which is usually deceiving) and low and behold Douglas Schulze is credited as writer/director. I'm amazed and perplexed how this one escaped my knowledge so I have to rent it. However, I am less than pleased with the results. At the beginning I was very pleased. Dark Heaven started out great. It was amazingly quiet and visually impressive. It was so just so stylish and very much like Silent Hill. Creepy in other words. But the film falls apart about halfway through with its lack of logic. I understand that Schulze was probably going for a dreamlike quality based on the ending of the film, but everything seemed to flow up until the middle. So it was almost good. From listening to the director's commentary I found out Dark Heaven was in production for something like four or more years and I believe that's where the film suffered. It seemed like they just shot a piece here and there whenever their people were available. Maybe that's why it ceased to flow. Schulze obviously has the ability to direct a creepfest, now if only he could get proper funding and a proper schedule. I wouldn't overlook this film completely because it does has some genuinely eerie moments and a solid cast.