Darklight

I really dug this movie because it delved into the birth of a female superhero which is something you don't often see. Shiri Appleby was great in the role of Lilith. The idea of raising the story of Lilith from the annuls of history and legend and remaking her into a superhero intrigued me.

I was not overly familiar with the legend of Lilith, but it captivated me. This hero has depth and a meaning. Great supporting cast as well, especially David Hewlett and Richard Burgi who bring a quiet intensity to their roles. Look out for this director in the future as the direction and writing are both intricate and detailed. I also thought the action fight sequences were great despite probably not having very much money. (It was SCI FI Channel, after all.) Above all, this film was fun. Highly recommend!!!

Sweet Shiri is all grown up now and still quite lovely, but she must have been desperate for money to do this film. It's clearly low-budget. There's something wrong with the audio. It's like everyone is speaking through some sound filter. Their voices just don't sound right. This movie is so bad only a heterosexual male fan of Shiri would want to see this film. Richard Bergi, John De Lancie, Richard Gnolfo, and David Hewlett do their best to support this lousy production, but still seeing and watching Shiri is the only incentive to continue to the end of the film. I have no idea why this movie is Rater R. The Cable Guide referred to this as a Comedy, Romance and Horror flick. It wasn't funny or scary to watch.

Although I agree with the earlier posting about Darklight not having much direction, I think it was initially a pilot for a series that never got greenlighted. It was like the producers had several episodes that they had to piece together to salvage what was funded in startup. The effects were good for TV -- we can't expect CGI in everything. I thought the initial storyline of Adam's first wife, Lilith, seeking to be absolved from her initial sins was a good premise. I would like to see the movie developed into a mini-series, if not a series. It could be something like 'Angel' with a flawed key figure trying to pay for the sins of the past.

A secret society called the Faith is battling evil. Lilith is Adam's first wife who considered herself an equal. She was banished from Eden and turned into a demon by God. Anders Raeborne injects himself with Darklight and turns into a near-indestructible demon. Elle (Shiri Appleby) is a woman with no memories attacked by the demon. William Shaw (Richard Burgi) recruits her revealing that she is actually Lilith under the control of the Faith. He trains her to use her demonic powers for good while trying to deal with her evil past.

As a concept, I really like trying to make the Biblical Lilith into a dark superhero. There is great potential but this is a fail. This was a Sci-Fi TV movie. I don't know if it was meant to be a TV pilot and it certainly fails as that in many aspects. As a simple TV movie, it doesn't really work either. There is way too much background to stuff into the start. The CGI and the special effects are fair for a TV movie. Shiri Appleby is a little stiff considering what her character has to play with. The movie doesn't have good flow. It feels like first-time writer/director Bill Platt was trying to run through a list of plot points. This doesn't work.

From the beginning of the world, the evil first woman, Lilith (Shiri Appleby), was expelled from Paradise, becoming an immortal powerful being. A secret society, The Faith, was created to chase and destroy Lilith, who loses her memory after a battle. In the present days, when the ambitious and wicked Anders Raeborne (David Hewlett) uses an experiment trying to become immortal, he transforms himself in the evil Demonic, a powerful dark demon that transmits a red plague with his bite and tongue. The traumatized Faith's chief agent William Shaw (Richard Burgi) is assigned by their leader Prefect (Ross Manarchy) to bring the recollection and train Lilith to face and destroy Demoniac and bring his head to The Faith to develop an antidote.

"Darklight" seems to be a pilot of a television series, and it is much underrated in IMDb. The characters recall the mutants in "X-Men", and the appearance of Lilith, played by the gorgeous Shiri Appleby, slightly resembles Mystic. The beginning of this film is a little confused, but sooner it becomes engaging, with a good story and special effects for a TV movie. There is a mistake in the sequence when Lilith is thrown by Demonic onto a car, since the car blows a fraction of second before she reaches its roof. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Darklight, o Poder da Escuridão" ("Darklight, the Power of the Darkness")