Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Leofwine_draca
Shot on digital video, THE DARKNESS BEYOND is the first in a trilogy of low budget Italian horror films devised by brainchild writer-director Ivan Zuccon. Ostensibly they're Lovecraft adaptations, although on closer inspection THE DARKNESS BEYOND is merely inspired by the themes of the horror writer rather than being an actual adaptation of his work. Of course, as is the case with any film with the slightest whiff of Lovecraft, there's name-dropping galore, from the run-through of Lovecraftian entities at the film's opening to the appearance of the Necronomicon, and the naming of a central character as 'Randolph Carter' – although here he's a soldier! Aside from the dodgy Lovecraft references, THE DARKNESS BEYOND is very much a typical shot-on-video horror film. The acting screams amateur at every opportunity and none of the performances in the film are particularly memorable. The worst element of the film is the story, or rather the lack of it. Zuccon seems to think people running around the countryside and up and down tunnels makes for a plot, well I'm afraid not, and certainly not in this case. This is one of those abstract films in which plot threads are left untied and the plot device that Hitchcock used when he killed Janet Leigh in PSYCHO is taken to an extreme; there's a succession of leading characters, all of whom are bumped off or disappear only for the film to concentrate on somebody else. As a result it's impossible to like or sympathise with any of the characters involved in this one.The main inspirations for the film seem to be THE EVIL DEAD (of course, this film is complete with tracking low-level camera shots) and THE BEYOND; in the Fulci film, the main characters enter the 'Beyond' at the film's climax, whereas here that action takes place at the film's opening. There are some obligatory gore effects, including a nasty torture sequence familiar to fans of films such as HOSTEL, an impromptu Caesarean birth, and other bizarre incidents. Unfortunately, the English subtitles on the print I saw have been poorly translated, only adding to the confusion, so the viewer is left with a bewildering and, I'm afraid, uninteresting sequence of images that make little or no sense. Definitely a case of style over substance, although to be fair this was Zuccon's first attempt as director. A sequel, UNKNOWN BEYOND, followed, and I only hope it has more of a story than this one.
thehyperborean-1
I thought this movie wasn't that bad at all. I picked it up in Tower Records for 5.99 euro and wasn't expecting much! I was pleasantly surprised that there are were a few scenes of heightened tension and the camera-work was even half decent. The story is a little weak and could do with a bit more exposition and polishing to fill in the gaps. All in all its adequate and effective.The acting isn't that bad but is quite amateurish. The sets used are really good and could easily be reused in a big budget movie. Other stuff such as costumes and lighting are quite good.The movie is shot on digital so it has that unnatural sharpness of digital movies which I personally hate but I got over it after a little while.Overall, I would recommend it to fans of movies such as the Blair Witch Project as it requires a slight leap of imagination to get over the overall cheapness. Worth a watch at least!
