Dark Reprieve

After reading the last couple of reviews for this movie, I decided to give it a try. Much to my surprise, I should have listened to my first instinct and avoided watching it and wasting an hour and eighteen minutes of my life. The plot of this movie could have actually gone somewhere if it weren't for the two main actors. I'd be lying if I said their acting was half-decent. Their performance was nothing less than amateur and unrealistic. It did not sit well with the plot of the movie, I could not even connect their emotions to the way they spoke in every line. I've seen better actors perform on the street. Great movie title, poor performance.

No. We all ran to the nearest bathroom to vomit. God, this is so bad.

This is a clever movie made on a tight budget, built around an interesting premise revealed at the end. I won't reveal the surprise at the end, but I will say that it reminded me of one of the ideas floating around in Philip K. Dick's "Ubik". In some ways, once the basic situation is explained at the end, the idea was intriguing enough to make me wish the movie had developed it further... because it has a lot of open-ended potential for creating interesting scenarios.

The acting was decent, the casting of everyday-looking actors in the two lead parts ultimately works well for the story.

M. David Mullen, ASC

Richard Boddington has set the bar a little higher for independent movie makers with his first feature film, Dark Reprieve. This movie is a creepy thriller with numerous plot twists and turns that kept me guessing right until the end. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm still confused!

Though this film is definitely not my genre of choice, I still found a lot to admire. The production values are much higher than I'd expect from a lower-budget film. The cinematography is impressive and the editing is flawless. Even the soundtrack has been well chosen to increase suspense. My only criticism is the weak acting by his two leads. I found them distracting, as they weren't up to the standard of the production. I look forward to seeing what Boddington can do with a decent budget.

I saw this film at a local film-fest sponsored screening last night. I was prepared to be disappointed, as I was by the last low-budget locally-filmed 'scary' movie I saw in the same situation, but was instead pleasantly surprised.

This film has fairly good acting & production values for something in this budget range. Most significantly, the director was willing to cut it down to 80 minutes to maintain pacing which shows a commitment to art over ego. The flashlight-lit scenes were particularly well done, compared to many scenes which I find too dark even in some Hollywood big-budget films, and the more active scenes didn't suffer from the ubiquitous modern trend of too-rapid cutting, although there was a bit too much use of 'recycled' shots and the forward-and-back jumps (non-linear plot) were sometimes unnecessarily confusing. The overall plot and theme, however, were fairly good and not predictable as one would usually see in this style of production. In fact, the final twist (and you know one will be coming) is essentially unpredictable yet not contrived.

The creepiness and scares build from setting (mostly shot on location in a real abandoned century-old jail) and plot, and there is little gore to speak of, unlike many films in this genre. This is a positive aspect, as the director is relying on story-telling instead of visceral or cringe-inducing effects. The extensive use of this location is one of the highlights of the film.

Overall I give it a only 6 out of 10 mainly because of the budget limitations. The score isn't bad, but I found the sound affects a bit lacking. The new, unknown actors give a good first feature film effort, and the plot and writing are very evocative of better Twilight Zone episodes.