Dark room

Directed by Mike Hurst
Written by Mike Hurst and Mark A. Altman
Starring Reed Diamond, Greg Grunberg, Lucy Lawless, Shawn Pyfrom
DVD Release: 1/02/2007
Anchor Bay

I wouldn't say that Dark Room is very scary or all that creepy as a horror movie. That being said, the intelligent writing, story plot twists and engaging characters held my interest. I continued to watch and I'm glad I did.

A mesmerized young man is found wandering a rural area roadway with blood drenched hands. Fast forward fifteen years later and the man, played by Reed Diamond, is in a mental hospital with total amnesia – not even able to remember his own name. Help comes in the form of an experimental drug that may make him recall his past. When the drug seems to have little effect on him, he is dismayed and escapes the hospital in hopes to find his own clues to his hidden past. He is soon befriended by an outcast teen named Stanley , played by Shawn Pyfrom. Stanley is having troubles of his own in the form of his stepfather, played by Greg Grunberg, who seems to have his own mystery brewing. When Stanley asks the man from the mental hospital his name he replies with an obvious lie, Richard Dawson. Together Stanley and Richard hunt for clues in each other's lives.

While investigations proceed, Richard begins to have disturbing and violent images flash into his mind of women being tortured and mutilated. Women from the neighborhood soon begin to go missing, and we suspect Richard is the culprit. Meanwhile, delving into the stepfather's strange behavior, Stanley and Richard break into the stepfather's off-limits darkroom and discover photos of young women. It seems as though Stanley 's stepfather has peeping tom syndrome and likes to photograph his neighbors through windows as they shower. Stanley 's mother, played by Lucy Lawless, is in denial about her husband's indiscretions and tries to smooth everything over between Stanley and his step-dad. Not ready to let go of suspicions, Stanley and Richard follow his stepfather to a remote cabin where horrible truths begin to unfold at a rapid pace.

Reed Diamond plays the perfect space cadet gazing off into space like he got his nuts caught in a vice and took one too many Motrin for the pain. It is good seeing Lucy Lawless in regular clothes and not wearing hubcaps over her ta-tas. Shawn Pyfrom (Desperate Housewives) plays a convincing outcast teen and Greg Gunberg performs perfectly, the flip-flop personality stepfather, being nice one minute being a bastard the next.

The DVD also has a great “Making Of...” extra that goes through everything from conception to script, casting, special effects, shooting on a small budget, to a summary of what it is like to make a movie. The “Making of…” runs about 10-15 minutes and I found it interesting, humorous, and informative.

Darkn Room was overall a good psychological horror film. Perhaps it is not a must-have/must-buy for my collection type of movie but it is definitely worth watching. It's ideal for a night when there's not much else to do.

by Michael Thomas-Knight
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