The Dark Lurking

Alright, first of all the movie was also known as "Alien vs Zombies". What was up with that? That title couldn't have been further from the truth. Okay, given there were some weird aliens in the movie, but zombies? Hardly qualified as zombies. They were mutants.

The movie cover, at least the one on the Danish DVD release, looks so much like an actual Alien movie cover, that it should be illegal. But of course, that is done to lure people in, to sucker people into buying it. Which I did, of course.

Let's get on to the movie. The storyline was actually good enough, though there were some obvious lacks here and there, and you also sat there after the movie ended with a thought like "why? why was this movie necessary?". There is a lot going on in the movie, but a lot of it actually doesn't come full circle, and just is left hanging there, hoping the audience will forget about it.

In this movie "The Dark Lurking" you will find a lot of cliché stereotypical macho he-men running around, all of which oddly enough, have really low voices. I guess having a rough, low voice makes you more manly? And you don't really get any real introduction to the people in the movie and why they are there in the first place. And also, what was up with the multitude of different accents being present in the movie? It just added to the confusion.

The acting was actually good enough, though the movie suffered from series of halting dialogue. At some points you just wanted to yank out hair at the root at some of the stuff people said.

What worked best for me in this movie was the dark and brooding environment. The scenery was fantastic and there was a good sense of claustrophobia in the movie. And also there was a lot of action throughout the movie. And the special effects worked quite nicely as well.

What didn't work for me was the alien lifeforms. Wow, that was so hilarious and so unimaginative. And you just got to love those oh-so-obviously-fake-plastic spikes that were protruding from its arm. And the "zombies" (as they want us to accept them as being), well they were somewhat of a lukewarm thrill. They were mutants, plain and simple. Mutated humans, not zombies! They had lots of blood splattered on them; nice! But they looked like something from a cheesy sci-fi movie gone bad.

Actually I was sitting and waiting for Bruce Campbell to just pop out of nowhere and start kicking butt!

In overall, this movie had some good elements, but it failed to punch through, and it ended up being a confusing, lukewarm experience that you would rather not have gone through.

Well, watching this movie isn't the greatest pleasure on earth, to put it mildly.

After the first half hour i began to regret the decision not to do something (anything!) else. The acting varied from terrible to mediocre. Although i have to say; Tonia Renee (as Lena) wasn't that bad. If the other actors were anywhere near her performance (which i would describe as adequate), then this movie could have been something worth watching.

Could have been. The story of 'The Dark Lurking' in a nutshell really. Or perhaps 'should have been' is what describes it best.

First, there should have been (done) proper casting. My first impression says it all: "did they cast the actors straight out of a local pub or what?". Poor doesn't begin to describe their performances. Especially Davyd Williams (as Canning) and Cassia Rosenstraus (as Jen) were absolutely horrifying. And not the good kind of horrifying. The kind one would expect to see in these sort of movies. No, this was horrifying as a synonym to terrible, abominable, dreadful, you name it. Overacting is the first term that springs to mind. Closely followed by: 'completely out of place', 'unrealistic' and 'plain stupid'.

Good thing it is a survival movie, meaning: people die. A blessing for the movie really.

The second 'there should have been' regards the choice of locations. Or the lack of it. How many times can you move around in freaking ventilation shafts and pretend it is a different one? Quite a lot, i know now. One or two rooms and a couple of meters of shaft, there's really not a lot more to see...

The third and final 'there should have been' is about the script. Which is weak. Especially the storytelling. The story is unfolded in about a minute time and doesn't explain too much. Far too little actually, even for an action flick/thriller. And maybe i missed it, but i never saw the aliens. Plenty of zombies around, but no aliens. Anyway, besides that; the overall quality of the script is (as i mentioned before) weak, bad even, although better actors would probably concealed most of it. Still, i expect much better for a million dollar budget movie.

Despite my previous critics, it wasn't all bad. It seemed like the movie makers came about halfway through to their senses (probably sobering up), making the movie more or less watchable. Not in the last part because of the 'removal' of the worst actors. The action was still kinda cliché, but acceptable and Tonia Renee definitely showed she deserves better. And the ending was - although not something i haven't seen before - quite surprising actually.

First part gets 1/10. Anything above that is just an insult for any self-respecting movie-maker out there. But the second part gets 5/10, because of a significant overall improvement. Still, the movie is substandard - to say the least - and is really nothing special. It's for most people one and an half hour of wasted time. I like post-apocalyptic movies, but i won't see this one again. Meaning to forget about it as soon as possible.

Verdict 3/10.

I wish I hadn't paid the on-demand fee for this one.

As my title states, the effects were decent for a low budget film.

The worst element, however, was the ridiculous dialogue, particularly from one of the rescuees who whined and complained about everything rather than showing any fear or nervousness which would be entirely natural given the circumstances. I only kept watching so that I could see her get her come uppance.

I agree with the other comments about it blending aspects of Aliens and Resident Evil. Unfortunately, since it is so obvious it only serves to highlight how much this film is lacking.

Skip it.

Come on Aussie film maker guys, genre film makers in Australia are getting closer by the day. this is another one that almost got there, just like Gabriel. first off i found out how much the real budget for this film is and it sure as hell was a lot less than $1mil and that's why this movie deserves a good pat on the back. like Gabriel, this movie looks great.(its a bit dark in some places but its a dark aliens movie so i'm not gonna carry on too much about that) Unlike Gabriel this movie knows how to blow stuff up and splatter the screen with alien slime. Big time! There's my big gripe though and this is where the movie falls down. It should have embraced that and had even MORE than what it had. there's probably 40 minutes of wasted screen time trying to slightly differentiate itself from Cameron's "Aliens". But it didn't need to is what i'm saying. People get that its borrowing heavily from aliens but so what its an exploitation film and aliens was 25 years ago man, let it go. there's a 2 minute action scene on you tube floating around that kicks ass, and that's what i'm saying: the whole movie should have been this, and there is a lot more of this in the film to be sure, hell yes. but...it half is half isn't still. Its like they thought they'd get in trouble for just going nuts. If the movie really cost what they say it did it would have been, i'm sure! Somebody buy this movie so these guys can get a budget and make that exploitation movie that you know they're dying to do. but a 5 will do for now, to me 5 gets you in the green zone and is a good movie. hopefully the next movie is an awesome 7.

Yeah i just got a look at it. Very cheeky, i know but there is some REALLY good gore and lots of action. The last 25 minutes is fast. Has that typical Alien feel but thats a good thing IMO. Its not Alien, not even close but its a start. Better than a lot of other trash like AVP (i know someone will have a problem with me saying that) but its got no budget and holds up to something like a bigger budget. In a lot of ways i wish it had a bigger budget so we could see more monsters and more spaceships, was cool to see models being used btw. I give it a 6 for being better than it should. Hope the DVD has some special features when it comes out.