6/10
'The Dark Power' (1985)
21 July 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The beginning title cards make 'The Dark Power' look like it might be a well-made nostalgic campy horror film, but after the first ten or so minutes, one will struggle with the film for a while, lying in wait for the actual story to unfold itself. Alas, there isn't really any very good excuse for a plot to be found here. Instead, just classic 80's camp filled with scantily-clad girls the audience wishes would get naked (but don't, save for one scene), and a bunch of oblivious wops who the audience begs the filmmakers to kill off immediately, but instead lie around throwing empty beer cans and smoking cigarettes.

This isn't to say that the film itself is bad, our characters are just pretty terrible, typical non-actors, but their dialogue at times seems to transcend their acting abilities. The infamous Lash La Rue who gets everyone excited about this film hardly makes an appearance at all, but is noteworthy as producer. He comes in at the end, complete with trademark 1950's Western movie soundtrack.

This is a sometimes fun amateur B-flick for damn sure, and reminds me of other well-made crap films I have seen in recent times such as 'Winterbeast', 'Zaat', and 'The Boogens'. Enjoyable enough for those with the attention span to tolerate generally well-made awful films. And if you are still commenting to yourself about the hokey costumes, trust me, there is worse out there.

Lots of Budweiser references, maybe have a few of those and the film won't seem like 78 minutes of intense bass and muddled dialogue. Definitely worth the watch for bad film geeks.

THE DARK POWER -----6/10.
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