The Darkroom

That might be a bit harsh for me saying that, but sadly so far in his directing career its true. Just have a look at what he as done so far. They barely make it past the 3 star mark.

Why did I watch this movie? 2 reasons. Lucy Lawless and Heroes star Greg Grunberg. Lucy was outstanding in this movie, her performance carries the whole movie. I do hope she gets a "blockbuster" and breaks into the bigger league of actors, she clearly has the skills. Greg was not so impressive, typical TV acting style.

The movie is oddly categorized as a horror. The only "horror" is short flashbacks, and they last a max of 2-5 seconds with a little blood in them. I personally would call this more a "drama/thriller".

But no matter how interesting the story actually is, bad directing, editing and acting (appart from Lucy) destroys it. You get no real connection to the actors, something which is very important in a story like this one. You just sit there watching feeling nothing. Its like watching a bad TV soap....actually I think the TV soap would be more interesting.

My advice: Stay away from this movie...or better yet just stay away from anything Michael Hurst is involved with.

I actually kind of liked this, not epic but I liked it b/c its a little different. And yeah it's low budget of course, but that's ok. I found this b/c of Greg Grunberg after I watched Big Spider, I thought that movie was pretty funny actually (purposely stupid haha) so I figured I'd see what else he did. It is odd seeing him act in a different range though. Also of course Lucy Lawless, she's beautiful obviously, and great actress, I didn't even recognize her right away surprisingly b/c she normally has different hair. Well I just watched Ash vs Evil Dead and she is older in there too.

Anyways, for what this is, it's not bad. A little slow, and a little weird, but it makes sense later. Again the actors did a great job in my opinion. We even get to see the Jump to Conclusions guy briefly from Office Space haha.

I'd say check it out if you are bored and have nothing else to watch, you might like it. And like others have said, it's not a horror movie really, no. I did watch it twice in a row, so that must mean something. I kinda skipped through it right away (b/c of some of the bad reviews on here), so I watched it fully the second time to see what I missed. I'd say 5 or 6 out of 10 seems fair. Not excellent, but you gotta give them a little credit. That's just my opinion.

Reed Diamond plays a man suffering from amnesia who's been in a mental asylum for over a decade after he was found wondering the back roads with blood on his hands. The doctors want to test out an experimental new drug that'll return his lost memories if it works. But when the drugs give him hallucinations of a demon, he chooses to escape instead. While outside he befriends a young boy whose stepfather (Greg Grunberg) mistreats his mother, won't let her near the darkroom in his basement & acts suspicious in general.

While the general 'mystery' of the film is a tad easy to identify way before it's revealed, I found Mr. Diamond's acting to be enthralling enough to keep my attention throughout. (In the interest of full disclosure, I've been a huge fan of his since Homicide and his brief, but extremely pivotal, role in The Shield up through Journeyman & Dollhouse) Not a great film nor a good one, but serviceable enough. Although I did like it better than the previous films that I've seen from Director/writer Michael Hurst (Room 6, Pumkinhead 4, Mansquito)

Eye Candy: one fleeting pair of boobs in a hallucination

My Grade: C-

Aside from the main character's visions of monsters and gore, I would have to say this is a thriller. Pretty original plot concept and good acting as well.

The story follows a man who is offered an experimental drug in hopes that he can remember why he was found on the side of the road covered in blood. The movie then leads you into his journey of finding these memories.

Nice twist at the end, though I have a feeling most people will know what that twist is about 10 minutes before it happens, but it doesn't distract from the effect.

Overall it's original, I like the concept, the actors were well suited and nothing really seemed out of place. A couple goofs here and there due to shoddy editing possibly, again, nothing that really distracts from the quality of the story. I rate this a 7/10. I give it 7 instead of 6 because of the lack of recognizable actors and how well the roles were played.

I watched this movie not expecting anything too good since i had never heard of it before, but after viewing it i wasn't disappointed. The plot is easy to follow and the mostly unknown actors execute pretty well. I was majorly impressed by lucy lawless's performance expanding out of her usual role as the "badass, don't need a man to get crap done" type and taking on a more vulnerable character that shows indeed she is one of the most underrated actresses out there. The movie kind of does seem to slow down a little bit and if you have seen enough of these types of movies, the twist shouldn't come as a shocker. So if you have a free night and nothing to watch, check this out. You might actually like it.