I stumbled upon the 2012 horror movie "Art of Darkness" (aka "Art House Massacre") by sheer random luck. I hadn't heard about the movie prior to picking it up. But the mere fact that it is a horror movie is actually sufficient to draw my attention. And the movie's cover art was also interesting enough to make me give it a go. Yup, I didn't read the synopsis on the back - I rarely do.
First of all, I must start off by saying that "Art of Darkness" actually turned out to be more interesting that anticipated. And by that I mean after having watched a few minutes it was clear that this wasn't a major Hollywood produced movie, so expectations were set given that fact. And it turned out that director Steve Laurence managed to make something of the movie with the limitations that were.
The storyline in "Art of Darkness", while it was hardly anything innovative or groundbreaking within the horror genre, turned out to be entertaining enough, and that made the difference.
Emily Baxter, playing Liz Richards, carried the movie quite nicely with her performance. While the rest of the cast wasn't as particularly outstanding or memorable as she was. I am not saying they were poor or inadequate, just that Emily Baxter was the most memorable.
There were a few gory scenes in the movie, which were actually quite nice. Just a shame that the movie didn't have more of such, because it would definitely have spruced up the movie and brought it out of the mediocre rating it landed on for my part.
The movie didn't feel prolonged or boring, as it had a nice pacing to the storyline and there was always something happening to keep the movie going. However, it is hardly a movie that incurs a second viewing.
