Dark Remains

For years we've been watching every horror film that comes out, from the dull Hollywood retreads like Saw 2, to awful indie releases that are completely unmatchable... we suffer through all of bad films in hopes of finding little gems like "Dark Remains".

We managed to catch a screening of this film at Shriekfest 2005. The audience loved it and I believe it ended up winning the award for the best film.

While it may not have the budget or star power of studio films, it packs a serious punch in the creepy atmosphere and scare category. The acting and cinematography are top notch, but it's the direction that makes this film worth the view. The story and characters develop at just the right pace to provide some fantastic scares.

The editing and visual fx are also top notch. And while many horror films don't manage to use music to their benefit, the score for "Dark Remains" only adds to it's creepiness.

I know the film has shown at a bunch of festivals, but none have been near me, so I can't wait to hear when it'll finally be coming out on DVD. Trust me, even if you're sick of the current state of horror films, give this one a try... you won't regret it!

If you have ever seen a movie by Brian Avenet-Bradley and compares it to the feedbacks it gets on IMDb, you know that most of the comments and votes are faked. TRUST ME: you will be bored! People of the production team write their feedback themselves (sometimes they even admit it). But that's not enough: They also click constantly "no" whenever there is a negative comment on the movie. That's why negative critics are always placed behind the hyped ones.

The movie itself is bad, bad, bad: bad acting, bad lighting, bad script, bad ending. Believe me now! If not, you will believe me later!

Brian Avenet-Bradley might be quite a good business man. Otherwise it cannot be explained that he finds people who still finance his movies. (Okay, they are cheap, but nevertheless.) But as a creative person, he is a complete failure.

I had the luck to watch this wonderful oldskool scary-flick on the weekend-of-fear.com in Erlangen this summer. It was, like the headline already said, very dark. More then half of the movie plays in the dark. Less music - more sound- and lots of "jump"-effects. Excellent camera and a descent story about a mountain full of mysteries.

The plot is simple. The daughter of a married couple, Julie and Allen, gets murdered in the beginning by a killer in her own bed in a locked house. Strange - no murder can be found... A year later, the couple tries to escape their past and to begin a new life in a lonely mountain cabin away from the big city. But, like always, they live in a spook-house and ghosts soon appear. Julie blames herself for the death of her daughter and something evil lurks in the woods... The movie slowly begins to walk into the "poltergeist" direction just to get the "ring" turn...

Like I earlier said, the movie is dark and you can really get scared, when Julie walks straight through the woods into an abandon prison in the middle of the night just equipped with the flashlight of her camera.

If you a bored of major movies and enjoyed the recent screenplay "Silent Hill" or the haunted house tales, you we like this small independent production. The effects are placed very nicely. Not too gory and the acting is nice. Hands up for this fresh scary-movie. A good popcorn rent.

A grieving couple move to a remote house after the death of their daughter, but they find a deadly spirit in their new home, and the locals aren't helpful ...

The opening is grim, then the daughter dies and it's not clear if it was suicide. She's maybe 7 years old, and they discover her in bed with her wrists all bloody. Ugh. Anyway, I was reading this as a metaphor for the horrible inevitability of suicide, but it got more literal and ended up fairly spooky.

The direction/editing is plain, with a soundtrack of plinky-piano/twangly-harp, just right for TV melodrama. Lots of poor attempts at jump-scares, especially the back-fitting of a figure that wasn't there the last time you looked, the figure moving across the background. The tumbling down the stairs one worked, both times.

Greatest weakness is the script, because it doesn't combine things into each scene, and there are too many characters for such an intimate story. Plus the dialogue is weak, leaving lots of meaning on the table.

Overall, a cheesy production, but the theme is strong and sort of breaks through in the end.

When the daughter Emma of the technical writer Allen Pyke (Greg Thompson) and the photographer Julie (Cheri Christian) is found slashed in the throat and wrists in their locked apartment, the couple decides to move to an isolated cabin in the mountains in Kingspike. Julie is very depressed and blames Allen for the death of Emma. Once in the new home, Julie sees the spirit of Emma in a photo she took in a nearby abandoned prison and she becomes obsessed shooting pictures of poltergeists. Allen is advised to move from the place by the local Jim Payne (Scott Hodges), and on May 21st, Allen finds that the former dwellers of the cabin have committed suicide, and he investigates the death in the spot and finds that many people died around May 22nd. He decides to move with Julie to a hotel, but she does not want to give up on Emma.

"Dark Remains" is a well constructed dark tale, with a great potential, but unfortunately awfully resolved. I did not like the flat performances of the Greg Thompson and Cheri Christian in the role of the lead characters. The makeup and special effects are good, considering that this is a low-budget movie, but the director uses too much the glances of spirits in the mirrors or on the back of the characters, and in the end they do not scary anymore. With some improvements in the screenplay and better performances specially of Greg Thompson this movie could be great, but my advice is to watch "Dark Remains" without great expectations, and the viewer that likes horror films might appreciate some good moments. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Espíritos do Mal" ("Evil Spirits")