After Darkness

...as long as you don't expect this to be the conventional Horror film it has been mismarketed as. Led by two late great British thespians, John Hurt & Julian Sands. "After Darkness" is a haunting & heartbreaking exploration of mental illness which in the hands of less committed or capable actors may have lacked the necessary emotional impact. It's hardly surprising that the film is a success given the strong leading performers, but it really is a surprise to see the name Dominique Othenin-Girard on the director's chair. The man responsible for the equally dire "Halloween 5" & "The Omen IV" really proved that he was more than capable of delivering on the promise he displayed here when undertaking directorial duties on the aformentioned films...

...If only he had applied the care & restraint he did on "After Darkness" to "Halloween 5" or "The Omen IV" they may well have ranked among the more interesting & effective of their respective franchises. Alas the films we got were completely over the top & rather insulting to the films which had come before them. Only the more dependable members of their respective casts kept them from being unwatchable. Funnily enough a couple of those cast members just so happened to be pre-teens. And perhaps that's the only comparison which can be drawn between those films & "After Darkness" as it features some fine work by child actors. Obviously not on the level of their veteran adult co-stars, but still it does perhaps prove that Dominique Othenin-Girard was quite good at bringing the best out of inexperienced child actors...

...The French film maker went on to make another above average film with the Supernatural Horror, "Night Angel", but if that one was what landed him the gig to direct "The Omen IV" then "After Darkness" was undoubtably the one which brought him to the attention of the producers of "Halloween 5". It's just a shame he failed to deliver on both counts!

S. S. S.