10/10
Impressive Independent Creature Feature
5 September 2008
Domain of the Damned is a seriously intense story. Visually it's awesome on every level.

The cast is incredibly talented. I don't remember seeing any of them before. If this is their first time acting experience then I'll say two things: They had a really good director to pull this large of a cast together to make such a good film. That and that's a lot of natural talent in that pool.

The f/x work beautifully. THe CG blends well with the practical. In a lot of independent film the CG tends to be flat and not seamless with the practical. And the make up f/x, prosthetics, and creatures are all incredibly well done and are simply not the stuff of low budget fare.

Next I have to comment on the props. Stacy and his crew did a fantastic job on prop design. The reaper serial killers reaper tool is sinister as hell. The books with the mythology and legend all looked really good. Nothing looked cheap and out of place. And the wardrobe was insanely beautiful. The Seven are awesome characters in wardrobe and should merchandised in action figure format.

The widescreen DVD looks beautiful on my 42" (small I know) Sony hi-def even though it's not hi-def DVD or blu-ray. The audio is crystal clear and perfect on every channel throughout the film. You won't find background noise, hum, buzz, or hiss (or at least not on my Denon 5.1 with Sony Surround Speakers).

The use of color throughout the film and lighting through the film works in every case. It continuously adds to the creepiness that is this film whether it's dark, red, green, strobed, or really bright.

I am impressed and really happy that our support for indie film drove us to buy the film. I am not typically a mythology creature feature kind of guy, but my wife Dione has always had a soft spot for that sort of film. I like my horror much more "real-life" i.e. the A.R.T. genre. However that's neither here nor there -- this film is one of the best mythological creature features I've seen. I think maybe if more films like this existed I'd be more into it. Lovecraftian doesn't really begin to describe DoD. I don't think Barker could write a story this awesome.

With millions of dollars at their disposal the major studios continue to disappoint while the indie filmmaker continues to impress.
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