The Absence of Light

I saw this movie in at a horror convention in Ohio and then twice again in its more refined and edited versions. I love to see young filmmakers take chances and go "big" with their ideas. I believe Desmond has done this. He was able to elicit the acting talents of skilled horror/thriller genre actors to add body to his cast of unknowns.

The editing and quality of special effects are a testament to Desmond's ability to use the best of what he has. I especially like some of the action sequences and stunt work.

Hooray for the "little" guy with big vision and guts to roll out this type of independent movie.

I am very lucky to have been involved in this project. everyone was really nice to work with and it is a shame that someone posted a bad review on here when this director has made its audience involved with this project. He deliberately is showing the movie as it goes through many stages of development. I think that is a wonderful thing to do. This person saw the cut of this that was nowhere near finished and was told that before the film started. I think it is a horrible thing to post such negativity when you haven't even seen the finished project. very unprofessional thing to do in my opinion! Also, he says that many actors left during this film preview. Well that is true, but also false! I was there! I had to leave early because I was at the convention to sign autographs and meet fans etc...none of us could stay to watch the film, but it had nothing to do with the film itself, it had to do with what we were hired to do that weekend and obviously if you even noticed any of us leaving you weren't really paying attention to the film anyway, so how can you even review it.

I am proud of how this film is developing, Robyn Griggs

I recently had the privilege of watching this film in Cleaveland at twisted nightmare weekend Aug 5 - 7 2005. I was highly impressed with the action sequences and surprised by the number of guest appearances in the film. The visual effects were quite good, especially when I found out that the director did all of the CGI at his home. This would be the third version of the film I have seen. I have been monitoring this movie from its infancy and I can say that the final cut is nearly perfect. The cast and crew have worked a long time to create this wonderful film.

I would definitely recommend this movie to others.

"The Absence of Light" is told from the point of view of an unscrupulous killer who's got a job to do and doesn't care how many people he'll have to kill. In this case, a senator wants to be re-elected and witnesses of his countless mistakes have to be removed permanently. It's the point of view which makes the movie different from the average TV crime story, doing the devil's work adds some refreshing political incorrectness. And violence. Also it's a nice touch that several veteran actors were involved: Tom Savini plays the killer's boss, modestly named Higher Power, David Hess is his equivalent on the other side, Caroline Munro just has to sit in a chair and speak a few lines, and Michael Berryman appears as an almost supernatural weirdo. On the other hand, "The Absence of Light" has quite a few problems. Taking the crime story into the science fiction area with a genetic experiment, illustrated with home-made computer effects, damages the professional look seriously. The soundtrack sounds very direct-to-video and lacks good background music. The characterization isn't interesting enough as the dialog often tends to turn in a kind of "we've got to do what we've got to do" circle. A final remark to the reviews I've read. Either personal friends of the director shout "masterpiece!" and give ten stars, or frustrated buyers cry "worst movie of all time" and click the lowest possible mark. Isn't the truth usually somewhere in the middle? Just my two cents, therefore.

It's obvious that all of the good reviews posted for this movie so far are from insiders who were either involved with the film or who know somebody who knows somebody and have thus seen multiple cuts. Well, I don't know anyone involved, and I've seen the final cut, and it is pure garbage. The only thing it has going for it is ambition and multiple cameos from horror legends (none on screen for terribly long). It's as if the filmmakers made this movie on a weekend during a horror convention and got actors like Tony Todd, Tom Savini, David Hess and Michael Berryman to film scenes during their coffee breaks. This is an ultra-cheap, shot-on-video wannabe X-Files with terrible acting from a cast of non-actors with more mullets than is acceptable in the 21st century. There is little or no action; it's all overly explanatory dialogue that attempts to explain a pointlessly convoluted plot. Ther computer FX are a joke, but there aren't enough of them nor enough action to make this film enjoyable in a MST3K way. After about 8 straight scenes of nothing but talking, you'll find yourself reaching for the fast-forward button...and not letting go. Absolutely worthless.