The Darkroom

Reed Diamond plays a man suffering from amnesia who's been in a mental asylum for over a decade after he was found wondering the back roads with blood on his hands. The doctors want to test out an experimental new drug that'll return his lost memories if it works. But when the drugs give him hallucinations of a demon, he chooses to escape instead. While outside he befriends a young boy whose stepfather (Greg Grunberg) mistreats his mother, won't let her near the darkroom in his basement & acts suspicious in general.

While the general 'mystery' of the film is a tad easy to identify way before it's revealed, I found Mr. Diamond's acting to be enthralling enough to keep my attention throughout. (In the interest of full disclosure, I've been a huge fan of his since Homicide and his brief, but extremely pivotal, role in The Shield up through Journeyman & Dollhouse) Not a great film nor a good one, but serviceable enough. Although I did like it better than the previous films that I've seen from Director/writer Michael Hurst (Room 6, Pumkinhead 4, Mansquito)

Eye Candy: one fleeting pair of boobs in a hallucination

My Grade: C-

Remind me the old good horror films! Is worth it watch it!

I had not heard of this one before, and was pleasantly surprised. There are horror elements, and blood and gore, but more important, the story is involving. The Actors credible, and the exposition pulled me right in. A good story of a man with amnesia, fighting off his own private monsters, and given a test medication to help him remember his bloody secret.

It seems that many movies today seek out a "twist" in the plot to surprise the audience. I can honestly say that I did not see this one coming, until it was finally revealed. The plot device led to a satisfying conclusion.

I gave the film an eight out of ten, Professional all the way, from acting, editing, production, and direction. It worked, and I liked it.

The story idea is excellent. Unfortunately, the execution lets it down.

The movie lacks pace, for one thing. It should be an exciting ride, but it is slow and more than a little boring.

I think the problem's mainly in the screenplay and editing. There aren't enough obstacles and reversals to ratchet up suspense, and there are scenes which don't really move the story along very effectively.

The producers should have seen this in the screenplay and insisted upon a major rewrite. Unfortunately, when the producer is also the writer and the director, this evidently ain't gonna happen.

Much of the acting seems kind of flat, and that is down to the director - all the actors have been quite competent in other projects.

It's a shame, because with better writing, editing and direction, this could have been a really good thriller.

I actually kind of liked this, not epic but I liked it b/c its a little different. And yeah it's low budget of course, but that's ok. I found this b/c of Greg Grunberg after I watched Big Spider, I thought that movie was pretty funny actually (purposely stupid haha) so I figured I'd see what else he did. It is odd seeing him act in a different range though. Also of course Lucy Lawless, she's beautiful obviously, and great actress, I didn't even recognize her right away surprisingly b/c she normally has different hair. Well I just watched Ash vs Evil Dead and she is older in there too.

Anyways, for what this is, it's not bad. A little slow, and a little weird, but it makes sense later. Again the actors did a great job in my opinion. We even get to see the Jump to Conclusions guy briefly from Office Space haha.

I'd say check it out if you are bored and have nothing else to watch, you might like it. And like others have said, it's not a horror movie really, no. I did watch it twice in a row, so that must mean something. I kinda skipped through it right away (b/c of some of the bad reviews on here), so I watched it fully the second time to see what I missed. I'd say 5 or 6 out of 10 seems fair. Not excellent, but you gotta give them a little credit. That's just my opinion.