Darkness (1993)

Directed, Written and Produced by Leif Jonker.

A group of teens return home from a concert to find their quiet town has been taken over by Vampires. After he watches his friends die in an attack on a convenience store, Tobe (Gary Miller), a lone avenger goes, off to do battle with the undead, armed with a shotgun, chainsaw, and Holy water. To survive he must find others and try to stay alive till daybreak.

Think ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 with Vampires.

The Screen Edge video sleeve credits this excellent Super 8mm vampire film as being made for $6,000, but Internet sources list it at $13,500. Either way it is still an impressive feature film for such a low budget. Apparently taking up to four years and literally requiring sweat and blood to make it happen. He and his partner, special effects whiz Gary Miller, raised much of the money to pay for post-production by selling their own blood. "Gary and I were selling our plasma on a weekly basis to pay rent on our little studio near the end. I sold a pint and washed some dishes to make my final payment on our lighting debt. Morbid, but true. We sold our blood to make a vampire movie."

Darkness is what John Carpenter's VAMPIRES and it's weaker straight to video sequel should have been. It's dark, raw and blood drenched, with some genuine moments that Carpenter himself would have been jealous of. It reminds me of JR Bookwalter's DEAD NEXT DOOR, as it was also shot on Super 8 for a ridiculously low budget, with a cast of thousands. Jonker clearly loves Carpenter's films as the excellent shot composition and original score reminds you of such classics as ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and HALLOWEEN.

The film opens with one of the most memorable massacres since the bar scene in NEAR DARK. Tobe is shopping in a convenience store when a blood drenched hysterical friend John, comes running in, screaming about vampires, and begging them to call the police. He grabs a cop's gun and shoots himself, just before Liven (Randall Aviks) springs up behind a woman at the gas station and tears her throat out. Vampire John springs up and shoots the cop before being shot himself. Liven kills everybody, before racing off into the night in the stolen car. Tobe is left cowering in the store, behind some shelving, before he too disappears, not before arming himself to the teeth. Phew! Told you it was a corker.

3 Days Later and our group of teens are heading out for a night of fun while Tobe is checking out a farmhouse on the edge of town. While they spend the last moments of their innocence leaping around to some rock band, Tobe is forced to cleanse the farm of Vamps but picks off a little too much when the sun starts fading and the vamps start waking up. Liven likes to sleep under the earth, away from the others, just like in VAMPIRES.

When the kids return home, they find everything they new has gone. Their parents and siblings are butchered or running around in the darkness, thirsty for blood. Unlike Vampires when you have slow mo vamp posing shots of them walking towards you, these vamps run at you screaming in huge gangs. When they feed, it isn't a slow sexual urge, but a frenzied orgiastic explosion as they succour like junkies around free drugs. There's no flying, no glowing eyes, no smoke effects, just thirst and gore. The tiny budget that limits this film makes it stronger by being more believable.

The film is over long, but apparently it first came in at around 128 minutes, so if they cut any more it would harm the narrative structure. The transfer isn't always perfect, especially as most of the film is set in the darkness, it does make it hard to make out a lot of detail and some of the summer evening shots are a little bleached and could do with some touching up. The grain of the super 8 does help add atmosphere. It's more reassuring to know it was documented with real expense and effort to capture what was necessary, then just shoving a tape in a video camera and shooting anything.

The actors are surprisingly competent for their age, as the whole cast is young. I didn't really feel convinced by Livens vampire power, but apart from that it is a well-driven intelligent bloodbath. The FX are capably handled although they are not always necessary. I like gore just like the next fright fan, but you can tell some of the FX are there, just purely because they could do them, like the chainsaw scene at the beginning when Tobe cuts the vampires hand. Why the hand, why not his head, or gut him like a pig? The Holy water scenes and death by Sunlight at the climax of the film are very well done, but do go on a bit. In this film, they don't die with a puff of smoke ala BUFFY, they scream and scream and scream, dripping blood and flesh everywhere, before ultimately exploding.

There's been talk of re-release of DARKNESS on DVD if it happens I want a copy. If you are out there Leif…Make another movie. I need more Darkness! If you guys haven't seen it I think you should track it down, especially if you are a vamp fan and need it to complete your collection. This is a diamond with a lot of rough edges, but a diamond nonetheless.

Thank you to Screen Edge for this Video screener.

Visit the Screen Edge website at: http://www.Screenedge.com

Lee