Darkness Reigns

source: Darkness Reigns

I laughed out loud a couple of times, hence the 8 star rating. If I were rated it just as a horror movie, then it only gets a 3 or 4. 1. Laugh one. When they killed Casper Van Dien. The death was unexpected and I loved the flip! 2. Laugh two. After Van Dien dies, the crew starts randomly throwing up. I just found it funny, maybe it's just me.

A group of filmmakers go to a reportedly haunted hotel to make a horror movie. It turns out that there's an actual demon running amuck in said hotel. Writer/director Andrew P. Jones keeps the enjoyable story moving along at a brisk pace, maintains an engagingly earnest tone throughout, makes excellent use of the opulent hotel setting, delivers a satisfying serving of splatter, further spices things up with a witty self-mocking meta sensibility, and pulls off a neat twist at the end. The spirited acting by the enthusiastic cast keeps this picture humming: Zachary Mooren as the rattled Daniel, Linara Washington as sassy make-up gal Vanessa, Peter Mayer as sensible and sarcastic paranormal expert Sidney, Ford Fanter as spunky documentary filmmaker Aaron, and James Packard as high-strung director Jacob Bale. Best of all, token name Casper Van Dien sends himself up royally playing a pompous jerk version of himself. The demon looks pretty gnarly, too. A fun flick.

I love horror. I love bad horror. There are even some incredible extremely low budget horror that were made out of someone's basement. This was worse. The first 30 minutes were okay. Casper Van Dien did good and he was enjoyable to see and he was the only reason I even gave 3 stars. Then when the demon started attacking the quality dropped like a lead balloon. Horrible effects, horrible acting, it was painful to watch. Based on review here I gave a shot and I regret it.

This film is about the opening of a documentary where the film crew, covering behind the scenes footage of a movie in the making, captures an extreme paranormal event as it happened. Yeah, this ain't that great but I didn't think it was awful. There's not much of a script and the acting is subpar. However, the story has a twist and I can't recall seeing one that is similar. Not say there isn't another film like it. I just can't recall one. "The Shinning" seemed to have been an inspiration for some of the scenes but this is nowhere near the same quality. The whole film teeters on a fine line between watchable and unwatchable. In the end it was watchable for me. This is independant, low budget film and it fairs well in that category. If you can handle watching films like that it may very well be worth your time.

This is another handheld camera horror, that should have had better filming since it was supposedly done by a professional. Daniel (Zachary Mooren) is behind the scenes director on the film "Defanatus Soul" which proudly stars Casper Van Dien, who plays himself quite well and was not "The Dark Energy." The set is a haunted hotel that is not in Maine, but Missouri. Things start to happen about 30 minutes into the film. If you have never seen a found footage film, this might be fairly decent. The initial explosion scene caught me off guard as did the body painting. However, everyone taking an Alka-Seltzer at the same time was a waste. At this point, it was clear they didn't have the budget to create the film they wanted. I also hate cheap voice effects. I liked the quick contacts scene. Guide: F-word. Body painted nudity. No sex.

I am an expert horror watcher. I know what works and what doesn't. It must be more difficult to write a horror movie than I imagine, because I think most people are not twisted enough to understand what makes a good horror as well as us horror fans. I don't mind a bit of dark humor, but once you go down the path of parody, even a little, you are making a horror comedy, not a horror movie. This movie skirts that line. Another thing horror writers need to understand is that we the audience need to feel there is SOME chance the protagonists will survive, and for a plausible reason. If the Big Bad can just kill anyone or everyone, any time it wants to, then the rest of the movie is just about thinking about creative kills, the intrigue of how to get out of it, how to survive, is gone. This makes for a bad movie. The other thing you don't want to do in a horror movie is exposition. This movie is filled with exposition. This movie flirts with horror, then does not deliver. It also flirts with sexy nudity, then does not deliver. Do the writers not understand? All that being said, I still want to encourage people to make more of these independent horrors, but don't be NICE, don't be typical, its not going to work. If you want a superior "trapped in an abandoned building", supernatural horror, watch Grave Encounters (2011). Its a movie that takes itself seriously as horror.

This is not even wannabe horror. Horrible acting, horrible script, nothing scary. Don't waste your time and don't read good score reviews before this one, because they are not real.

Casper Van Dein takes on the role of a lifetime, playing... Superstar Actor Casper Van Dien. Makes it looks easy!

This was utter drivel of the highest calibre. Puerile acting , no script , awful sound effects and about as scary as the Magic Roundabout. I only gave it an extra star for the decent special effects makeup but thats all it has going for it. Poor old Casper must be desperate for cash to star in this trash but he gave it a bash and it was wasssssh as we say in Scotland. Whenever you see old Casper in a movie you know its going to be a Syfy or Asylum level of movie drivel but this was worse - lets just say he has fallen a long way from the excellent Starship Troopers to this load of old poopers. What is it with horror movies that they all have to end with grungy. heavy metal, brain damage music as well - that just compounded my sore head after watching this travesty! What were the other reviewers watching?