Dark Show

Agreeing to participate in a reality-show shoot, a man joins the crew to film his segment for the show but manage to find themselves stranded at a ruined castle in the wilderness, and the longer they stay there the more they come to believe something is living in the area with them and must get away alive.

This was a slightly disappointing but still enjoyable genre effort. What it does right is the general setup that manages to get the group stranded in the area and alone in the castle ruins. Setting up the pretense for a new reality show shoot to take place brings the team out into the wilderness for their challenges which explains why the team is together with the producer, cameraman, and performer all showing up out in the middle of the woods which is nothing original but serviceable at best. The exploits of them in the ruins where the constant screeching in the distance and eerie noises being heard nearby creates some intriguing atmosphere that builds nicely as this one goes along when matched alongside the struggle for adequate protection from the small fire they've built and the relative unknown situation they've now found themselves in. That is where the film picks up some energy as the second half featuring the team trying to come to terms with the predicament and come face-to-face with the creatures. The difficulty and unfamiliarity of navigating the castle make for a couple of decent suspense scenes as the paranoia slowly starts to seep in that they're not alone and that the game isn't being featured here that take great advantage of the underground tunnels of the castle. The finale, featuring the confrontation with the crazed killer living alone at the castle features some enjoyable aspects here with the constant appearing out of nowhere to strike when they least expect it, some decent enough stalking that generates a couple of suspenseful moments and a decent enough resolution. These all hold the film up while there are some issues to be had with this one. The main problem with this one is the general lack of interest or excitement generated here since it's so reliant on running through the usual series of scenes you'd expect in this type of film. Rather than do anything unique or original, the reality-show premise involving the participants being asked to try out their worst fears to push themselves to the breaking point is tired and uninspired, much like the rather bland quality of the rest of the film featuring the group wandering around the darkened castle corridors without much happening. It's way too dark to make out much of what happens anyway but with this one being so formulaic it's hard to really make much of a difference. Coupled with the film's low-budget origins that come through quite frequently and a lack of explanation for what the killer is doing at the castle based on his ceremonial rituals, these are what hold the film down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Do not waste your time or money. Maybe one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Acting is terrible the budget is terrible the only positive thing I can say about it is the concept started out not bad and just went completely downhill. Trust me when I say there was no plot it's just watching people run around in the dark and never explains anything and never concludes anything.

An extreme contest show takes the cast/crew to French medieval-castle ruins where the three have to spend the night. When they start to hear the thing that goes bump in the night growling and roaring they exit stage left. However, they decide to return to the lee and relative warmth of the ruins, because for some reason they won't survive a rain-storm(?) Things go mostly downhill from there. There is one moment I like at the very end there but that and the few other high-spots aren't enough.

I could guess everything that was going to happen in this film, and while predictability doesn't make a movie bad, it does this one because it relies heavily on the twist at the end that is right in front of your face.

Uninteresting characters make senseless actions under any pretense, and resort to heavy breathing and screaming for their extremely limited lines. This usually works in some handy-cam films for a particular scene or two, i.e. The Blair Witch Project, but here it is used around every corner, quite literally. Plot devices are formed but never fully used or explained... but the cherry on top of the sundae is at the end when the silent credits roll, we're have meant to taken this whole escapade seriously... No B-movie or low budget fun to be had here.

I was reeled in by the interesting poster and premise, but the cast and crew squandered any hope for this flick having any redeeming values. I want my hour and twenty minutes back... I felt nothing after watching this movie.

For related, much better films by simple comparison, see: As Above So Below, REC, The Descent, Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project, hell even Halloween: Ressurection...