Dark Vision

In this age of crowd-funding sites and easily accessible technology, almost anyone can become a filmmaker if they put their mind to it; unfortunately, not everyone is a Scorsese or a Spielberg. When my daughter told me that she works with someone who had written and starred in a horror film, I just had to check it out, but I wasn't expecting greatness. However, while Dark Vision is unlikely to make anyone's Top 10 scary movie list, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined: the performances are more than adequate, the direction is competent, and there's a sense of fun to the whole thing that carries the viewer quite painlessly to the end.

The basic premise is fairly simple: paranormal webcast presenter Spencer Knights (Bernie Hodges) hopes to win a contest by filming at a gothic folly, supposedly haunted by the spirit of murderous plague doctor Baylock. The team enter the creepy catacombs located under the building, where Spencer unwittingly releases the plague doctor from purgatory. The caretaker of the folly, witchcraft scholar Clem (Judith Haley, who could be Britain's answer to Lin Shaye), steps in to help defeat the evil.

The first half of the film is fairly tongue-in-cheek -- a parody of TV shows like Most Haunted or Ghost Watch -- with the cast giving suitably broad performances, while the second part is played much straighter, the focus on the horror. This shift in tone is handled well by director Darren Flaxstone and is not as jarring as it sounds, however some plot elements do become lost in the mix leading to a degree of confusion: What is Dark Vision Hub (the organisation behind the contest) and what do they hope to gain by releasing the evil plague doctor? What is the significance of the tiny doll with bells attached to it? What are those floating orbs of light that lead production assistant Jo (Suzie Latham) to safety? Who is the spectral girl who communicates with the survivors via a phone app? While I don't need everything spelled out for me, I felt that these aspects of the script would have benefited from a little more exposition.

In terms of horror, the superb subterranean catacombs, with their many shadowy nooks and crannies, allow for plenty of suspense and some effective jump scares, but the violence is fairly restrained -- as a card-carrying gorehound, I had hoped for a little more in the way of blood and guts once the plague doctor got to work, but budget limitations no doubt prevented this. By way of recompense, there is a sex scene that delivers some nudity -- totally gratuitous, just as it should be, and cheaper to film than special make-up effects sequences!

OK so I found this film a little clunky at times, but I started watching it with low expectations and got pleasantly surprised. On the whole it's a very mild watch if you're expecting blood gore and torture then don't even go there with this film. Also it's kinda "found footage" but not "found footage" and that's maybe it's downfall. The makers should have made up their minds about where this films style and genre lay. However I found the cinematography, locations and richness of color not too shabby. The acting levels go from good, competent to ropey, but that said I did like most of the characters on the whole and I've seen worse. On to the film. As I said I had low expectations when I started watching this but got oddly drawn in. We follow this team on there punt for on line streaming paranormal competition called "Dark Vision". As you go down into the tunnels underneath a remote folly in the English countryside. The competition itself is spelled out via online screen messages, which I didn't really like and think could have been done in a better way, it felt clunky and more TV than film, but kinda does the job. What I did like was the occult paranormal aspects of the film and that it made me chuckle and even jump at points. There are some nice moments in the chase through the caves and the sound effects and music really add to its spookiness. The visual effects are OK but not great but I've seen worse. Which is kinda what I feel about the film as a whole. It was interesting and fun but definitely had faults and for a low budget spooky film it looked a lot slicker than most. I did write this review in response to some of the scathing one's here which in my view are slightly unwarranted. It isn't art-house or going to go down in the annuls of horror - but it's not that bad and I have definitely seen a lot worse. Mild horror, mild scares, amusing at times and on the whole I was intrigued to find out where the story led.

I found it really enjoyable and fun to watch. It really does make you jump, laugh and scream. OK its low budget, which means the production isn't so slick in places which makes some aspects a stretch to believe in. But this is a horror which seems to have its leanings to more classic films than modern - and I loved that. It's a bit of a roller coaster ride of spookiness and laughs. It starts of slow and intriguing but stick with it as it starts to chug along nicely from about a third of the way in with horror & jumps galore and doesn't take itself too seriously. I say give it a shot - its strangely compelled me to watch it again - which is more than can be said about a lot of movies I've seen lately.

There is more in the darkness than you know...

Mind-full host Spencer Knights puts his crew in peril whilst trying to win his own series as part of the paranormal competition Dark Vision.

Find out what manifestations lay in wait for his team inside Baylock's Folly - a place with a dark history and possibly a darker present.

Who is it's mysterious caretaker Clem and what are the twisted motivations of the producers at the "Dark Vision Hub"?

Step into the darkness and find the answers in this new wave Gothic horror from Stray Spark productions.

It's too bad there is no way to check the reviews here on IMDb. The one good review is from a guy who talks about seeing lots of movies and this is great, except he's only reviewed THIS movie!!!

In other words, he worked on the film.

It's an atrocity. Boring, stiffly acted, poorly written and amateurishly directed.

Too bad because the sets are cool enough to have worked well with a crew who had talent.

It feels more like a really bad TV show than a movie.The blonde with the big ones should have done a full frontal and I'd have given it 2 stars instead of one.

I watched this movie without any expectations, there were no reviews to base it off or at least not to go into the film with any preconceptions. From the very first scene to the last, the acting is awful, cheesy, unconvincing and dull.

A horror movie for me, needs to be scary and tense, this film was neither. I never jumped or found myself dreading the next scene, instead I was wishing the torment would end. At this point, I was ready to scoop out my eyes and tear out my cochlear, so the torment would end.

I would not recommend this film to anyone. It was terrible.. Truly terrible.