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Title: Dark Remains (2006) |
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Review of Dark Remains
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Comments for Dark Remains
- Posted on 2008-01-06
Scared the #%$@ out of us!
Okay, for two huge horror fans, this movie delivered. Me and my husband had a hard time getting through this movie. We had to stop if a few times to get a breather and turn on the lights. It makes you jump and breathe fast because of sudden scares that keep happening. It is a true jump out of your seat, when will it happen next, heart pounding scary, etc...movie!!! Watch it and you will know what I am talking about.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-11-12
Not bad for a low budget film
After their daughter is murdered a couple move into an isolated cabin to get away from the city. The problem is that the cabin is haunted. Some of the acting is questionable and the script didn't always flow but for a low budget film it was okay. The woman playing the mother was too young for the part but did an adequate job.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2007-06-26
Not bad
Dark Remains is a brave and mostly quite accomplished attempt at a "Grudge"/"Evil Dead" style horror film which works at making you jump but is sadly in need of a good script. A couple named Alan and Julie lose their young daughter when she is brutally and unnaccountably murdered in her bed by persons unknown. The distraught couple move out to a remote cabin in the woods to come to terms with their grief, but it turns out that the cabin is not the most peaceful place for them to be, as several of it's former occupants have died mysteriously, and soon the couple are fighting for their lives and their sanity.
Let me say first off that for a low budget independant production (which I think this is), the film has a lot going for it. If you are of a nervous dispositon and don't like being made to jump, then this film could give you nightmares. Once Alan and Julie arrive at the cabin and start getting spooked, the scare scenes never let up. Ghostly faces appear behind every window or mirror, things drop and clatter on the floor unexpectedly and doors and windows keep opening and closing with no warning. It actually gets quite wearing to be constantly waiting for the next ghoulish figure to pop up over someones shoulder or glide down a distant corridor. However, the ghosts, when they appear are spooky enough, and some of the surprises are very well done. Camera work and frame compostion are very nice, although a lot of it, such as close ups and montages of ordinary things like Julie having a shower or photographing an abandoned prison that happens to be next door to the cabin seem to be little more than attractive padding. It almost seems like there is nothing to do but watch the screen for the next ghost.
This brings me to the films major failing. When the ghosts are not on screen, there simply isn't enough happening. And there isn't much attempt to develop Alan and Julie as human beings. The two leads are competent actors but they barely speak to each other. Despite their relationship since the death of their daughter being crucial to the atmosphere, the conversations between the two are limited to mere scraps of words at a time, such as "I'm going to take more photos" or "I don't feel right here". It's ok that the couple are greiving and not communicating, but as a viewer I needed more insight into their characters to be able to understand their motivations. I could almost see in the eyes of the actress playing Julie the craving to actually have something more significant to say than "I'm tired" or "I don't feel like it", over and over again. Because of the lack of decent conversations or visible personalities in anyone, the film boils down to being an exercise in looking at spooky imagery without having any involvements with the characters being menaced.
So in some ways the film is a failure, and it is crying out for a script to put some intellectual meat on it's scary bones. They could have also added more in the way of explanations, as the story ends with a lot of plot holes still unexplained. I'd probably call the film an overall success due to the scares, particularly some terrific scenes of ghoulish figures falling down stairs, or the phantom of the dead daughter cropping up unexpectedly to the great distress of her mother. It also handles that old chestnut of "characters waking from a dream sequence that we don't know is actually dream at first" pretty well, too. But a bit more attention paid towards giving the actors real characters to work with would have paid off enormously.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2007-06-11
A few scares . . . much of the same old and not much else
Scares? Yeah, there were a few and, at times, the movie almost lifts itself out of a morass of leaden acting, weak dialogue, I've-seen-this-before-story, and . . . well, how scary are ghosts that never actually hurt anyone? The ghosts pull the usual on-screen antics of silently creeping behind characters, of running across doorways, and appearing behind a character after they've turned away. Most of the scares are when the ghosts jump out at you or crawl and the music bangs and crashes. We're talking Disney Haunted House stuff for most of the journey.
I didn't begin to *get* the character's motivations until late in the last act. Without giving anything away (or any more than I have already), their daughter dies and they move into an isolated home in the hills (though not so isolated that we are never at a loss for neighbors popping in and saying howdy). What follows is dialogue and story below-par with even late night Cinemax fare.
It's a poorly written, poorly directly, poorly shot indie film with a few easy scares. If you can get past that, my wife was grabbing onto me as the ghosts jumped out and ran past. Longtime horror fans, jaded by scores of similar-feeling spooks, will yawn or laugh through much of the movie. Your girlfriend or wife may just gasp and grab for your arm.
Score: 2
- Posted on 2007-04-27
Damn scary, great film and new fav of mine.
Rarely does a film come along that I can say was truly scary with so much coming out these days. This film satisfied a long time need of mine in that department. The timing, cinematography and directing were excellent, combined with a overall complimenting score and sounds. The ghosts thruout could easily compete with any ghost film out there...so to summarize this has become a new fav of mine, that I'll recommend to all my friends. If your like me and tired of being let down, then here ya go.....
(eyesofchaos dot com)
Score: 5