Dark Heritage

A group of campers is slaughtered whilst camping in a wooded area.Press reporter Clint Harrison decides to try to find out exactly what happened to those campers who died.He enlists two other men for help and goes to the woods where they reach an abandoned creepy looking mansion.Clint's team begins to die killed by some sort of bizarre creatures.What's going on in this derelict mansion?"Dark Heritage" by independent film-maker David McCormick is a watchable albeit quite slow-moving horror film inspired by short story written by H.P Lovecraft titled "Lurking Fear".The acting is amateurish and the dialogue is often terrible,but the monsters look creepy and the story is cool.6 Lovecrafts out of 10.

Independent film maker David McCormick was at his best when he ably directed his no-name cast and managed his motley crew to produce a film that keeps you wondering throughout the entire flick. Some might view the actors as stiff and slow, but this is the real secret of Dark Heritage; that is, a cast of characters who know next to nothing about acting are used by McCormick in ways that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. Shot on location in Louisiana, this film takes advantage of the swamps, plantations, and antebellum homes. In fact it's in one antebellum home that the bloodiest scenes of the movie take place. The director's camera techniques in the horrific dream sequence are done to make the viewer squirm in his seat. The sound track is moving and is timed to move the viewer along to discover the secrets of a mysterious family of man-eating creatures. And perhaps an even more important note than the music is the way the recording of the sound and sound effects throughout the entire movie enhanced and, in some cases, even made up for the few shortcomings of the actors. McCormick took some unknowns and created a thriller that incorporates the best of detective "who dunnits" with the probing ferocity of heroic journalists. Combined with blood and guts, drama and intensity, and sheer terror, this is a "must see" film on a Friday night with a group of your best buds (and maybe some 12 ounce ones too).

It can never be a good sign when a film's credits don't list any name as "writer". Sure, everybody knows the plot is inspired by H.P Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear", but even the legendary horror author remains uncredited, and nobody else is mentioned for the adaptation, neither. "The Lurking Fear" is a fantastically horrifying tale, but it has yet to receive a good film version, and this clearly wasn't going to be it. "Dark Heritage" truly is a laughably incompetent late-80s horror dud, but at the same time I must admit it's also tremendously entertaining! Three guys head down to Louisiana to investigate a mass murder that took place at camping ground near a reputedly haunted mansion. Sure, I know they look like drunken perverts on a fishing trip, but they are actually reporters of a newspaper. They spend the night at the mansion, but one thunderstorm and a bit of blurry camera footage later, two of them have vanished and the survivor is blamed for murder. But our hero, Clint, quickly finds two new buddies (two 40-year-old college students) to further investigate the origin of the hideous demons crawling around the Dansen estate.

Now, I know Lovecraft's tale "The Lurking Fear" rather well, and what I honestly can't figure out is why the name and nationality of the spooky immigrant family changed for this version? It always was the Martense family and they came from Holland. Now suddenly, they are the Dansen family from Norway? Lots of the things happening in "Dark Heritage" are dumb and don't make the slightest bit of sense, the dialogues appear to be written by a 4-year-old, and the acting performances are beyond insufferable. On the other hand, the make-up effects are surprisingly gross (the bloke with the half-eaten face is terrific) and the "underground dwellers" look effectively creepy. I enjoyed it, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to tolerant fans of cheap and cheesy 80s horror flicks. Still, the film could have used a couple of females in the cast, and the finale is a total letdown, so I really can't give it a rating higher than 4.

Another uncredited adaptation of Lovecraft's "Lurking Fear". I admit, that even with the low quality packaging, I had a bit of hope for this one. The fact that I'd never heard of it until is surfaced on DVD, 14 years after being filmed didn't exactly help matters.

The first thing I noticed about this no-frills DVD is that the title of the film is presented as "Drak Heritage" on the menu. This didn't exactly fill me with confidence as people who give a damn about their release would never let such an obvious and glaring error slip past them. The sound quality fluctuates horribly during the film and some of the soundtrack overwhelms the system and obviously went far beyond the redline during mixing. The film quality is iffy, at best, and lighting seems to be a problem in numerous scenes. Of course, we've all scene bad, low-budget Lovecraft films before.

The next problem with the film is the cast. Cardboard like at best, just plain awful at their worst, the cast seems wholly unbelievable. The flat delivery of dialog casts one more horrible shadow on this film.

Still, there are some bright points. First, the locations. The plantation home used for the Dansen manor was wonderful. It evoked an almost "Blair Witch" feel, the cracked plaster, and vacant halls. Of course, someplace that has been abandoned for 150 years shouldn't have light switches by the door, and a fairly well manicured lawn, but I was actually willing to overlook that.

Secondly, bad as this film is (and make no mistake, it is pretty awful), Dark Heritage does manage to create a bit of atmospheric tension during a few of the more eerie moments of the movie. In fact, had this been done as a silent film, it would have most likely enhanced the overall production by not allowing bad acting to spoil the few solid atmospheric shots.

Still, this adaptation is weak, leaving a few unanswered questions, but perhaps they are best left unanswered. Interestingly enough though, the only actor from this movie who has gone on to continue his career to any note, Eddie Moore (Mr. Daniels), went on to play bit parts in two Brendan Fraser movies ("Blast from the Past" and "Dudley Do-Right"). Nice to see that he managed to overcome that little problem of being incapable of acting his way out of a wet paper sack.

Overall the film comes off like someone's college project and, viewed in that light, it isn't too terribly bad. Of the three Lurking Fear adaptations available (Bleeders/Hemoglobin, the Lurking Fear, and Dark Heritage) this is by far the most faithful adaptation. Certainly, the setting has been moved to Louisiana and the name Martense has been changed to Dansen, but much of the film is actually quite faithful to the original story. This alone makes it an interesting find

The girls might be prettier if you're their accompanist or a $#!+-faced onlooker. What I'm sayin' is that it'll take special circumstances for a non-whince reaction to this effort. The delivery of many lines appears to be distractingly unnatural for some actors. Lighting seems to be a problem, too, although failing eyesight may have accounted for my frequent squinting. And if you view this film, be open-minded enough to accept elements that no zoo or circus would reject: They are the above and below-ground creatures who feasted on dozens of campers near an empty Louisiana mansion. That's the discovery of a trio who is dispatched from their printed media to investigate the deaths. Then, two of THEM disappear, and the survivor is part of another threesome who take up the hunt. Eureka! I just realized what one of those aforementioned "special circumstances" would be - unconsciousness.