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Overall Rating : 7/10
Directed By : Darin Scott
Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator)
Meghan Ory (Decoys)
Diane Salinger (Rest Stop: Don't Look Back)
Matt Cohen (Boogeyman 2)
Supplied By : Phase 4 Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : July. 14, 2010
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| PLOT A troubled young woman, Claire (Meghan Ory) returns to the house where she witnessed a horrible massacre fourteen years ago with a small group of friends. The house has since been turned into a haunted house attraction led by impresario Walston Ray (Jeff Combs). As the day rolls on, the group slowly begins to realize there may be other forces at work in the house, as the attractions begin to come to life with seemingly murderous intent. |
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| THE REVIEW In the film, our lead character is a young woman named Claire. For the last 14 years, Claire has lived a very traumatized life, one that she suppresses with various prescribed medications. Her trauma is tied to an incident occurring in her small town during her youth, an event that saw a foster mother from the community go berserk and kill a number of children she cared for. For years Claire has tried to forget the event, and one of the things that helps her do so is her advanced acting class, seeing as she has a great passion for the craft. But unbeknownst to her, her passion and fear would soon mix when an eccentric man named Walston Ray shows up. Ray, a man most known for his haunted attractions plans to open an attraction that he claims will be his best fright experience yet, as he sets his sight's on the house in which the Darrode Massacre happened just 14 years ago. With two reporters coming soon to check out the attraction for reviews and such, Walston is in a hurry to get an early presentation set up, which is why he comes to Claire's acting troupe for Help. Ray offers to pay each of the young actors $300 each for one day of service, as he plans to have him act out parts for the haunted house, and should the act go off without a hitch, then he would hire them for the season. Knowing that this location is the source of her troubles, deep down Claire dreads this invite, but in an effort to conceal her inner troubles, she's the first to agree to the job, with the others soon following. When the group of young actors arrive at the house dubbed "Dark House" they realize that with this attraction, Walston Ray is pulling out all stops to make this one the best of all. Ray, along with his assistants, have not only hired actors but they've also employed a very state of the art holographic system. With this system, they are able to generate various life-like frights and killers, all to the most realistic details, the system is something that everyone finds truly remarkable. For Claire, this is the first time that she has been back to the house and almost immediately, she begins to get an eerie feeling, as she begins to see and feel things....something just is not right. As the night continues, the presentation soon commences and at first all is going as planned, bur as you probably guessed already, something does begin to go wrong. The troubles arrive when the computer controlling the holographic characters fails as it's clear that someone, or something has breached it. As things worsen, the holographs begin performing even more realistically than they were intended, because what happens is that they begin to kill, and kill for real! As everyone around her begins to fall one by one, Claire begins to freak out, but while others have doubts, there is no doubt in Claire's mind that the spirit haunting the house, is indeed that of the murderess Miss Darrode. DARK HOUSE is another film being released by LIGHTNING MEDIA and FANGORIA and under the FANGORIA FRIGHTFEST banner, and unlike the previous film from the line that I saw, ROAD KILL, DARK HOUSE is a pretty impressive effort. Shot in a reported 18 days, DARK HOUSE from the beginning is obviously a low budget effort. While it may be low budget, it doesn't cease to begin on a good note however, as it begins with an eerily haunting scene of such things as; stuffed animals and blood being doused with blood. This of course sets the stage for what's to come. It follows with a group of girls looking eagerly at the neighborhood "scary" house. All of the girls are of course scared to go into the house, all but one that is. The brave soul, not only goes near the house, but she goes the extra mile, as she steps inside. But, she could have never expected to see what she finds; seven bodies strewn all about the house covered with blood. With all of the children murdered, she also finds Miss Darrode, the head of the Foster home, out of her mind with one of her hands grinding away in the garbage disposal. Of course, all of this insane imagery is just too much for the little girl to take, and so, we watch as she passes out. It is then that we progress to 14 years after the fact, and is where we meet Claire, a woman obviously traumatized by something, as she pops a pill. She is traumatized by a childhood occurrence, memories of the Darrode Massacre and that house in which it happened - a place that her Doctor suggests that she may not to revisit, in order to resolve her trauma. Of course Claire ends out visiting the location a lot sooner when Walston Ray, the fright guru shows up and inquires about the services of she and her acting group, Before seeing this film I checked out it's trailer(see below), and i'll just say that it left me a little iffy about the film. Firstly, I knew beforehand that this film is leading in the theatrical voting poll, so, obviously, there must be something about it, but still, the trailer made the film come of a little too cartoony, not to mention that the film reminded me a bit of Disney's HAUNTED MANSION. But with this said, it's truly safe to say that you shouldn't always judge a film by it's trailer. Because although at times, yes it is a bit cartoony, and some of the acting is over the top and not all that believable, overall DARK HOUSE happens to be really fun entertainment. Like almost every Horror film these days, DARK HOUSE is no exception when it comes to comparisons with other films In feel, i'd say that it feels like a NIGHT OF THE DEMONS in some kind of way - the house, the costumes etc, but overall, it was most reminiscent of the more recent, GHOST MACHINE and HOUSE OF FEARS(especially in it's plot, as they could be considered almost identical). For the most part, the film plays out like a typical slasher, the holograms are overturned, they kill, thus people die, it's pretty routine. But where the film separates itself away from being your typical teen Horror film in in it's twist at the end. The scene that leads up to the film, is a bit of a "gotcha moment, and without revealing it, I felt it was a brilliant and surprising twist. The acting her is really hit and miss, some are on top of things all the way through, while others are just up and down in terms of performance. Of course the great Jeffrey Combs, who is known for portraying a vast array of characters is great as the eccentric Walston Ray. As always he brings with him charisma and screen presence. Another familiar face to me was Meghan Ory as the lead character, Claire. I'm familiar with Ory from films such as the comedy BLONDE AND BLONDER, and most importantly DECOYS, so this isn't her first time to act in the Horror genre(even before that she was in the vampire themed Canadian show, VAMPIRE HIGH). Ory does a fairly good job leading the film as Claire, as she's certainly has the energy, there are a few times in which she really dials it up a little too high, especially during the "freak out" moments, but other than that, for the nature of the film she's fun to watch. With the exception of Matt Cohen, and Bevin Prince(who appears in the TV show ONE TREE HILL), the rest of the cast I had never seen before. They all pull in decent performances, which is more or less all that's required, as sadly, most of them appear in the film, just to be killed off. Despite expecting nothing more than a cheesy Horror flick geared toward a younger audience, DARK HOUSE actually ended up being a film that is fairly impressive. It's story, as well as some effects likely inspired by Asian Horror make this a fun film, only that for the most part, I found enjoyable. |
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| GORE
METER 4/10 Most of the gore in DARK HORSE is achieved via CGI, but most scenes excluding a few are tolerable and not too hokey per se. There are things such as blood splatter, a hand in a garbage disposal, impalements, one's face being ripped off and a bloody decapitation. |
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MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 The score is made up mostly of ambient tones that, sometimes tend to work nicely, while at certain times during the film, the score hints at the film's lower budget, sounding as if it's straight from an older B-movie. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I have to be honest, DARK HOUSE is a film that, for it's budget and shooting schedule, is impressive. From viewing it's trailer, I expected a film that was a lot worse, but I really liked it's story and the general idea of having the holographic beings attact. Jeffrey Combs, plus murderous ghouls and ghosts? it's quite fun. Be sure to check out FangoriaFrightfest.com you have until July 19th to vote for your favorite to win a theatrical run! Each FANGORIA FRIGHTFEST film will be available through Blockbuster stores and Blockbuster By Mail, as well as digitally via Blockbuster On Demand for a full 45 days before they are available for purchase or rental through other national home entertainment providers.They then will be released on DVD, September 28, 2010 |
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