Dark
Was The Night (2014/Image Entertainment Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C+ Film: C+
Starring
Kevin Durand and Lukas Haas, Jack Heller's Dark Was The Night
(2014) is a moody and atmospheric creature feature with a fairly
predictable plot but decent characters and an overall interesting
script. The film also stars Biana Kajlitch and Steve Agee.
Hisel's
script first attracted attention when it made the 2009 Hollywood
Blacklist of the top 100 unproduced screenplays under the working
title The Trees. A few production companies joined to fund
the project, which began filming in 2012 under Jack Heller's
direction. The film premiered at L.A.'s annual Screamfest in October
2014, where it won awards for special effects and visual effects for
good reason as the Creature at the end of this film is pretty well
designed and executed.
A
long slumbering evil is awoken in the trees, outside the remote town
of Maiden Woods. Isolated and threatened, it sets its sites on the
townspeople as Sheriff Paul Shields (Durand) attempts to overcome the
demons of his past so that he may protect those that he loves.
I
liked how the film kept the Monster a mystery until the end, with
many scenes showing the aftermath of his attacks and skepticism
on behalf of the more intelligent than normal characters. Usually
cast as a villain in films, Kevin Durand (The
Strain) makes an interesting hero here in
a great performance.
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and
a powerful, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), the film looks and
sounds great on Blu-ray disc. Subtitles are also on the disc in
English SDH.
Extras
include a Behind The Scenes
featurette, an eight minute Q
and A with the cast of Dark
Was The Night, and a bonus trailer
that plays before the menu screen. No trailer for the actual film is
included.
All
in all, Dark Was The Night
is an interesting creature feature that isn't horribly filmed or
acted yet isn't completely original either. If you're a fan of
horror films like Pumpkinhead,
then you may want to give this a spin.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
