A Darker Reality

A few years ago Chris Kazmier and Christopher Hutson put out a film called "Dark Reality." It was a very different type of film; mostly improvised, it dealt with several women who had been captured by a lunatic and imprisoned. It focused almost entirely on the women in captivity. Strong stuff that was difficult to watch -- the IMDb page now claims the cast and crew thought it was "a joke," but if you watch the film and see what the actresses put themselves through, it's no joke.

Now a few years later, Kazmier is back with an expansion of the original film called "A Darker Reality." Caught it on VOD recently in advance of its DVD release. The film takes the original premise and expands it. It shows us the actual psycho (played by Daniel Baldwin -- no spoilers there, that's his entire character) and shows the police attempts to find and capture him and save the women.

Let's get the problems out of the way first -- the police stuff is bad. Pretty much "Movie/TV Police 101" -- gruff detective gets a partner he doesn't want, etc. But much of the movie focuses on the trapped women and the narrative of an escaped survivor, and holy crap, it is harrowing. You really feel the utter helplessness of these women and it's legitimately disturbing. And somehow, having Daniel Baldwin as the psycho makes it even a little creepier.

It's not perfect and there are things that stretch credibility even in this type of film (for example, the psycho manages to have an absurd amount of victims in one area) and while the ending is a punch in the gut, it's a little confusing. And as you can tell from this review, it is definitely not for everyone. But it is very well done, and I am definitely looking forward to purchasing this film when it comes out on DVD so hopefully get some "Behind the scenes" things.

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.

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.

Some movies are just down right disturbing. The imagery is so dark it sticks with you and not easily forgotten. This is one of those movies. Daniel Baldwin does a decent job playing the sadistic killer. The only reason I didn't give this movie higher marks was the acting by the cop and forensics lady, everyone else's acting was pretty good. It's odd to just have a couple of bad actors…either they are all good or all bad. Anyway, these two were bad enough to stick out.

The story itself, a sick killer who kidnaps, tortures and kills woman isn't as clichéd as it sounds. The imagery and torture is very intimate, in some scenes it felt as if your right there in the same room. Not many movies can boast such a quality.

If you got a strong stomach and can handle torture movies, I recommend this one!

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.