Darkness

Leif Jonker's micro-budgeted horror film "Darkness" has absolutely nothing new or special to offer, but it's still very much recommended to gorehounds because of the amazing enthusiasm and energy our director brings to the screen! This guy obviously is a big horror fanatic and he merely just wanted to express his passion by making his very own gory indie-flick! The story can be summarized in two lines: a bunch of young metal kids return home from a concert, only to discover that their entire community was killed by a ravenous vampire. They decide to stay to avenge their relatives and join forces with another teenager who saw his friends getting massacred in a convenience store. That's it! The rest simply involves extremely filthy set pieces and extraordinary gory make-up effects! Jonker occasionally brings genuine tension and there even are some truly ingenious camera shots to admire! The acting's pretty good, especially considering all the cast members are inexperienced friends of the director, and the OTT gruesome climax is particularly enjoyable. Really not that bad.

if you are a hardgore fan this is a MUST for you, this is the goriest movie i have ever seen. (yes, i have seen braindead). the end of this movie almost tops braindead's lawnmower massacre.

Title: Leif Jonkers Darkness (1990)

Director: Leif Jonker

Review: I always admire creative people who even though they might not have any resources go out of their way to make their dreams come true. There's something to be admired in that type of passion and determination. And Leif Jonkers had that and a whole lot more when he made Darkness.

The plot is about Toby, a young man whos whole family was murdered by a gang of vampires lead by an undead known as Liven. He joins forces with a bunch of other teenagers who upon returning from a Rock and Roll concert find that their parents have perished at the hands of Liven and his vampire gang as well.

This movie impressed me in many ways. OK, first off the movie is a no budget flick that was shot by a few teenagers and their friends in their own home town, so lets get any hopes for this being a mega budgeted high production right out of the way. This is first and foremost a ultra low budget independent film. Now, lets get to the good stuff. This movie kicks ass! Its got a lot of imagination. It might have had no budget but that doesn't mean that Leif Jonker didn't think up imaginative ways of overcoming their obstacles in making this vampire Opus! This is the type of film that makes me want to get up from my ass, buy a digital camera and start making my own independent film. Its got that energy and spark that only new comers who are hungry can give to their project and it is very evident in every inch of film.

First off the flick opens with a bang in a gas station. This whole sequence was designed to grab you by the throat in the first opening minutes, and that it does! The pace of the movie is very fast and energetic, right from the get go, the movie never stops. Its like a roller coaster ride of vampiric thrills.

The movie has some well orchestrated moments spread evenly all through out. Starting with the gas station sequence, then the rading of a vampire layer which turns pretty bloody (chainsaws and all) the car wash sequence...the shoot out, I mean this movie has a bunch of interesting moments that keep the movie from being boring.

The gore is plentiful! No budget? Screw it! Lets throwing as much blood as we can for shock value alone! And gosh darned it I loved the cheap thrill of seeing those sprays of blood exploding on my TV. The deaths don't shy away from the red stuff like in todays PG-13 filled world. No, no, here the blood splashes all over the place right down to the ultra bloody as hell finale.

Speaking of the finale I loved the heck out of it. It had an Evil Dead vibe to it; though I'm sure that was intentional because the film feels like something Raimi and Campbell could have cooked up in their early years. Its got that bravado of showing things raw, no candy coating whatsoever. That ending has got to be one of the bloodiest ending I've ever seen. The special effects were fun, I couldn't get over the things these guys came up with on such a low budget (something like 5,000$) The only bad thing about the movie where its technical limitations. Its obvious that they lighted this movie the home made way, some scenes are too dark to make out, others where to bright. Still, you can tell that all Leif Jonker needed was a good lighting crew and a budget and the movie would have looked a heck of a lot more kick ass. But as it is, I let that slide because the movie was being so entertaining. Also some of the acting and dialog wasn't so hot. In other words, it has all the limitations of a no budget flick. But the fact that Leif Jonker could churn out such an entertaining flick with all these things against him speaks volumes of the talent that the guy has. I'm sure given the right budget this guy could be a very good horror director.

In conclusion, Id say this is a fun movie to watch. Never boring, lots of energy and imagination. Hurray for Independent cinema and bring on Darkness 2! Rating: 4 out of 5

Okay, before I start my review, I would like to make something unmistakably clear, DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT THIS MOVIE IS AS GORY OR GORIER THAN DEAD ALIVE AKA BRAINDEAD!!! The amount of gore in this movie was highly disappointing, save for one long vampire melting sequence near the end, there are some stabbings, some bitings, a lot of off-screen stuff, maybe two or three actual on screen deaths. There was actually so little gore in the movie that I stopped thinking of this movie as a gore film and started looking at it as an '80s style B-horror movie, and it actually was entertaining in that aspect. Nevertheless, there are still several other little things in this movie to bug you and/or get on your nerves. Including but not limited to:

• The vampires... or zombies... or both,... Yah, I'm not really sure what they were.

• In the first part of the movie, the film constantly cuts from "19 minutes to sunset" to "2 minutes to sunrise" to "23 minutes to sunset" and so on and so on and so on. It does this a LOT, sometimes with nothing happening in between.

Cut to two minutes before sunset, guy sits in his car, cut to twenty minutes before sunrise.

It's just really unnecessary.

• There's one scene where a guy is being eaten by vampire-zombies in a car wash, while his girlfriend stands a couple feet away and screams "No!". We then see him being eaten for a while, and cut back to the girl still standing there, probably meaning she was just standing and watching the whole time.

• The acting is really not that good to be honest, it didn't really bother me any, but there are probably a lot of people that will be bothered by it, so I thought I should bring that up.

• Almost the entire soundtrack is heavy metal, whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the viewer. I personally liked it myself.

Also, the movie is called "Darkness - The Vampire Version". OK, so there's another version? I thought it was just rough translation but according to the credits that list credits for "both versions" of the movie, I could be wrong. I wonder if the other version has more gore.

There is apparently a VHS version and a digitally remastered DVD version with less gore but with some "spit and polish" applied to it like in the American unrated version of Dead Alive. I really don't know which one I watched, I don't think it would make much of a difference either way.

6.5/10

Leif Jonker's DARKNESS is a mixed bag.

The nomadic vampire Liven (Randall Aviks) wanders from town to town, creating havoc (and vampires) wherever he goes. Hot on his trail is Toby (Gary Miller), a sole-survivor of one of Liven's murderous rampages. Hellbent on destroying him (as well as any other vampire he happens to come across), Toby bands together with a group of teens from the latest town to fall victim to Liven's carnage.

That's about it for the plot, but that's not really the point of this film. It's more of an excuse for flashy camerawork and excessively gory effects. This is where the strength of this film lies.

The biggest problem with this film is the lighting (or the lack thereof!). The film is aptly named DARKNESS, since most of the time you can't tell what's going on! There are numerous scenes where there's just enough light to make out the image on screen, but not much else. The film would've definitely benefited from a few extra lights!

Although none of the youthful cast give spectacular performances (most of them seem to just be making up their lines as they scream frantically at each other), but within the context of the film, the actors do a decent enough job. Randall Aviks isn't as menacing as he tries to be. He looks more like a heavy-metal groupie than a vampire, but his scenes are minimal, so his presence isn't totally annoying.

The main attraction in DARKNESS is the gore, and it spills by the gallon! They're impressively done and they're graphic, as well as plentiful!

Jonker does his best to overcome his technical limitations to create a pretty cool little film, creating some memorable and haunting images - especially at the gruesome climax!

I'd like to see Jonker do something else, but I guess he's fallen off the planet. I've read reports in Fangoria that he was working on a film entitled "The Demon Machine". Anybody know anything about this? Hopefully Jonker will put together another project soon. If DARKNESS is any indication of his talent, he may very well have a promising career (provided that he invests in some more light kits).