E&H Company has decided to expand another one of their series beyond a trilogy. This time it's the character of Jason Lee aka The Killer returning in the entry titled "Dark Times". Last we saw Jason Lane was in 2017 and he had just gotten revenge and was ready to lay low. The main character was always living a lonely life, but in this case the setting around him is more meaningful than one might think at first. The concept of the fourth movie takes us into a post-nuclear future. Which is a different and new approach from E&H. It will make "The Killer" series stand out more and offer new types of storytelling.
In the short film we get to see Jason Lane befriend a scavenger and start a plan to stop a new enemy group called The Brotherhood. The opening credits has a strong "Fallout" type vibe, which set the mood perfectly. The locations and visuals are also enhanced more by the purple-esque color hues. It made me feel like the skies had been scorched during the nuclear war and now the atmosphere was stuck with a warm color. I am interested to see more of Jason Lane's everyday life in this new world and his backstory with The Brotherhood. Does he only earn money being a paid mercenary or does he do other jobs? How are other people living and how deserted are the cities? There's a lot of potential and ground to be explored in a future installment. All thanks to this unique approach to elevate this series into another genre. I commend Jacob Ebbesen, Nicholas Hansen and Lasse Ravn Jacobsen for taking this decision. It's also fun to see Jacob Ebbesen find a new character to play, Lord Hex. A mysterious gunslinger with a western style. That was a welcome surprise considering one of my favorite characters he played in the preview three shorts, Mr. State, was laid to rest.
Although I also wish to see action sequences taken out of the forests and to new settings. It would be nice to see how Jason Lane would operate with gun tactics in environments he's not used to fight in. Also, Lane talks about a time machine. Which creates even more questions in my mind. I'm assuming this is setting-up an eventual time travel story? So I implore E&H Company to continue this route and to not be afraid of spending more time exploring the world and characters. I understand that most of this short is acting as a prelude to something grander, but for that reason I felt it was also holding back a lot. And in my view, I don't want it to hold back. Embrace the science fiction elements. I love the concept and I want to see what more is out there in this killer world!
