Well, watching this movie isn't the greatest pleasure on earth, to put it mildly.
After the first half hour i began to regret the decision not to do something (anything!) else. The acting varied from terrible to mediocre. Although i have to say; Tonia Renee (as Lena) wasn't that bad. If the other actors were anywhere near her performance (which i would describe as adequate), then this movie could have been something worth watching.
Could have been. The story of 'The Dark Lurking' in a nutshell really. Or perhaps 'should have been' is what describes it best.
First, there should have been (done) proper casting. My first impression says it all: "did they cast the actors straight out of a local pub or what?". Poor doesn't begin to describe their performances. Especially Davyd Williams (as Canning) and Cassia Rosenstraus (as Jen) were absolutely horrifying. And not the good kind of horrifying. The kind one would expect to see in these sort of movies. No, this was horrifying as a synonym to terrible, abominable, dreadful, you name it. Overacting is the first term that springs to mind. Closely followed by: 'completely out of place', 'unrealistic' and 'plain stupid'.
Good thing it is a survival movie, meaning: people die. A blessing for the movie really.
The second 'there should have been' regards the choice of locations. Or the lack of it. How many times can you move around in freaking ventilation shafts and pretend it is a different one? Quite a lot, i know now. One or two rooms and a couple of meters of shaft, there's really not a lot more to see...
The third and final 'there should have been' is about the script. Which is weak. Especially the storytelling. The story is unfolded in about a minute time and doesn't explain too much. Far too little actually, even for an action flick/thriller. And maybe i missed it, but i never saw the aliens. Plenty of zombies around, but no aliens. Anyway, besides that; the overall quality of the script is (as i mentioned before) weak, bad even, although better actors would probably concealed most of it. Still, i expect much better for a million dollar budget movie.
Despite my previous critics, it wasn't all bad. It seemed like the movie makers came about halfway through to their senses (probably sobering up), making the movie more or less watchable. Not in the last part because of the 'removal' of the worst actors. The action was still kinda cliché, but acceptable and Tonia Renee definitely showed she deserves better. And the ending was - although not something i haven't seen before - quite surprising actually.
First part gets 1/10. Anything above that is just an insult for any self-respecting movie-maker out there. But the second part gets 5/10, because of a significant overall improvement. Still, the movie is substandard - to say the least - and is really nothing special. It's for most people one and an half hour of wasted time. I like post-apocalyptic movies, but i won't see this one again. Meaning to forget about it as soon as possible.
Verdict 3/10.
