"This Darkness" is a low budget flick with a priceless script. It's peppered with hilarious, sneaky zingers such as:
VAMPIRE: "I WILL CRUCIFY YOUR SOUL!"
Van Helsing: "Now... is that the standard crucifixion with ropes, or is it the nasty kind with the nails and the kicking and scratching? Because I really don't think I can handle that."
If that tickled your funnybone, then you can expect many more, such as:
COP: (reading Van Helsing his rights) "Doctor Abraham Vincent Victor Van Helsing..."
Van Helsing: "You forgot 'Freiderick' "
COP: "I'll arrest him later ...you have the right to remain silent."
In a parallel universe, this movie is like "Young Frankenstein" meets "Angel Heart" meets "Crouching Tiger." Unfortunately in this universe, due to its low budget, this movie comes across as something closer to your home movies on a worn out VHS. But if you enjoy watching low budget, indie productions for the sake of art, not technical polish, you should give this flick a spin.
It's a vampire flick. It has blood. It has hot chicks, and occasionally some of them get kinda naked. That's all you need to know about the plot of this movie, or any vampire flick really. What won me over was the cheeky humor as in the 2 examples I gave you. The story itself is pretty creative too (loved the DNA 'G-sequence' reference to biblical prophecy). If you can overlook the low-grade late-90s video quality, the occasional continuity error (like Van Helsing's eyeglasses disappearing and reappearing on his face), and the fact that the high tech bio laboratory is quite clearly the back kitchen of a restaurant, then you'll have a great time.
There are even some artistically impressive highlights, such as a vampire killing a victim underwater (I've never seen that done before), some cool 90s indie-metal tunes on the soundtrack, an awesome massacre scene at a rock concert (complete with a dude doing a stage dive into the crowd only to realize it's a crowd of vampires. Check out his slo-mo reaction), and the best part which deserves a paragraph unto itself...
The fight scenes. This is where low-budgetness works to this film's tremendous advantage. No CGI crap, no Hollywood stunt doubles and no trick swords, the fight scenes and the martial arts action are 100% authentic. Choreographed and staged by Ron Little and the gang at Ron Little Martial Arts (who seem to make up half the cast of this flick), the kicks, flips, spins, stick fights, staff fights and sword fights are the real deal. The camera generously shows us long fight sequences without all the disorienting Hollywood cuts & edits, and at least once or twice I wondered if someone got seriously hurt on set. In today's day & age of computerized action fakery, these old school authentic fight scenes alone are worth the price of admission.
Like I said, don't expect cameras on par with today's zillion dollar high tech. Expect something closer to a VHS home movie, edited on a 90s Macintosh. But if that doesn't scare you off, give it a shot. Pay attention to the script because some of the gags are fast but priceless. Oh, and the 1st gym scene (where our hero shows off his martial arts--uh--expertise) had me howling so hard I had to rewind and watch it again. I would love to see this movie remade, word for word, scene for scene, actor for actor, but with a million dollar budget. A great example of a diamond in the rough. (But golly it sure is rough.)