BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

MisterWhiplash This movie is one of those hazy memories I enjoy having, even as I haven't seen the film since this time. Back in junior high, this movie was on some tape a friend had (also with the bootleg of the Night of the Living Dead dub-spoof with the title that went on for a paragraph). This movie was on there before it, and we once watched it before going into the next film. The story was forgettable, as were the characters... but this filmmaker really went for the splatter, and it's this that made a mark for me. The ending is kind of spectacular: all of the vampires are out in the morning when the sun rises, and they all decompose. And it's not in such a way like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (into dust) or some old-school Universal horror movie. No, this is bloody and disgusting.How bloody and messy and putrid you'll have to see for yourself. This isn't to say the acting is very memorable (it isn't) or the story compelling (what story). But the effects that they pull off for such a low budget, and how they build up to such a point by the climax and it being there to satisfy purely the gore hounds, is crazy and exciting and disturbing. I'd recommend the film just for the last 10/15 minutes alone... and of course I only hope this IS the film I remember seeing (a lot of movies called Darkness out there, and always seemingly half-remembered).

TheRetardedVacuum Okay, before I start my review, I would like to make something unmistakably clear, DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT THIS MOVIE IS AS GORY OR GORIER THAN DEAD ALIVE AKA BRAINDEAD!!! The amount of gore in this movie was highly disappointing, save for one long vampire melting sequence near the end, there are some stabbings, some bitings, a lot of off-screen stuff, maybe two or three actual on screen deaths. There was actually so little gore in the movie that I stopped thinking of this movie as a gore film and started looking at it as an '80s style B-horror movie, and it actually was entertaining in that aspect. Nevertheless, there are still several other little things in this movie to bug you and/or get on your nerves. Including but not limited to:The vampires... or zombies... or both,... Yah, I'm not really sure what they were.In the first part of the movie, the film constantly cuts from "19 minutes to sunset" to "2 minutes to sunrise" to "23 minutes to sunset" and so on and so on and so on. It does this a LOT, sometimes with nothing happening in between.Cut to two minutes before sunset, guy sits in his car, cut to twenty minutes before sunrise.It's just really unnecessary.There's one scene where a guy is being eaten by vampire-zombies in a car wash, while his girlfriend stands a couple feet away and screams "No!". We then see him being eaten for a while, and cut back to the girl still standing there, probably meaning she was just standing and watching the whole time.The acting is really not that good to be honest, it didn't really bother me any, but there are probably a lot of people that will be bothered by it, so I thought I should bring that up.Almost the entire soundtrack is heavy metal, whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the viewer. I personally liked it myself.Also, the movie is called "Darkness - The Vampire Version". OK, so there's another version? I thought it was just rough translation but according to the credits that list credits for "both versions" of the movie, I could be wrong. I wonder if the other version has more gore.There is apparently a VHS version and a digitally remastered DVD version with less gore but with some "spit and polish" applied to it like in the American unrated version of Dead Alive. I really don't know which one I watched, I don't think it would make much of a difference either way.6.5/10

lovecraft231 A small town is attacked by a horde of bloodthirsty vampires. The only hope is a lone avenger and a group of ragtag survivors.Released in 1993, "Darkness" garnered something of a cult following upon release. It's easy to see why-it's loaded (and I mean freaking loaded) with gore, and it's energy and enthusiasm, like that found in other no-budget cult horror flicks like "The Dead Next Door" and "The Children of Ravensback", is actually rather infectious.While that may be true, that's sadly not enough to save it. The film was shot on a Super 8, so the image is grainy and dark, making things very difficult to see (it would have been great if it had obscured the protagonists dreadful mullet.) Also grating is the soundtrack, made up of annoying Casio Keyboard and even more annoying Death Metal (seriously, what is it with these no budget horror flicks and bad Death Metal?) While one isn't expecting Oscar worthy performances, the acting is still strictly amateur hour, as the actors sometimes seem almost confused instead of frightened or threatened.In the end, I'm sure fans of no-budget gorefests will love this. Everyone else though, will wish there was a little more meat on the ribs.

DVD_Connoisseur "Darkness: The Vampire Version" is a terrifically ambitious zero-budget movie by first-time director Leif Jonker. Its high-octane, non-stop bloody action is gripping from the start and despite some less than perfect acting from the cast, this film succeeds with its large-scale portrayal of the effect that a master vampire (Randall Aviks) has on various towns in North America. Aviks' character manages to turn a seemingly endless number of townsfolk into fast moving, gut chomping vampires and there are some superbly dark scenes of carnage.This shot-on-film horror production puts much higher budget pictures to shame. The scenes of jugular-spurting bloodshed are numerous and intense - very impressive for a film of this independent nature.The excellent synthesiser produced score is very reminiscent of early John Carpenter tracks - very moody and foreboding. Director Leif Jonker also co-produced this music - is there no end to the man's talent?Speaking of John Carpenter, I've read that Carpenter was responsible for the editing of this cut of the film (the "Vampire Version"). If this is true, it would explain the extremely effective pace and editing of the movie.I've given "The Darkness" a 10 for sheer effort. Along with "Nekromantik" and Mendez's "Killers", this ranks as one of my favourite low-budget movies.Check out the Barrel 2 disc DVD edition if you can as it's a lovingly presented set.