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List Price: $24.95 | | Label: Barrel
Salesrank: 110937
Released: May 30, 2006 |
| Our Price: $14.75 |
| Used Price: $9.98 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Depicting the takeover of a small town by an army of vampires, Darkness was partially financed by its makers selling their blood at the local plasma bank. Since it was so micro-budgeted, Leif Jonker was uncertain his grassroots horror movie would ever be seen publicly, hoping at the very least to produce the film equivalent of a good garage band’s "demo tape" to display his potential as a director. Instead, the gore-drenched film went on to become one of the premiere titles in the underground horror wave of the early 90s, gaining a worldwide cult fan base through multiple video releases (all of which were culled from inferior source materials created by recording the projected image off a homemade screen) and screenings at the Fantafestival in Italy, Night of the Bloody Tapes in Germany, and as a "Centerpiece Selection" at the Nevermore Film Fest in the United States. Now, Barrel is proud to present this underground classic with its first ever professional film-to-video transfer struck directly from the original camera elements, featuring digitally restored picture and sound in a new, never before seen edit – Darkness: The Vampire Version, the official, definitive, director’s cut!
Darkness: The Vampire Version Reviews:
A Lot of Fun 
2007-04-24 - This is an excellent two disk set filled with tons of extras. The film is a gore soaked saga pitting a group of young people against an ever growing vampire hoard. Filled with tons of bloody, spurting, gooey deaths, it should be a delight for gore-hounds. The film moves at a nice fast pace and is never boring. Where the DVD really shines is in the extras. Multiple commentary tracks are included with the cast and crew. This commentary illustrates the love these people share for the film as well as being very insightful on the makings of low budget, renegade cinema. Also included is an original cut of the film that is also worth watching to see how "Darkenss" morphed over the years into the current version. We are also given a nice set of interviews with many of the cast as they look back on their experiences making the film. All I can say is this movie is a lot of fun-check it out.
Worth watching... 
2007-01-19 - ...okay first of all it is supposed to be a vampire movie, but the vampires act more like zombies. They bite the hell out of any and all bodyparts, they walk like they're zombies, and act like they are zombies. This movie was not bad, except they over did it with the blood. Too much of it is not always a good thing, and it gets old after a while. I would say this is about a three and a half star movie. It is a good addition to your horror library, but not an integral one. I would say rent it first, then if you feel it justifies a purchase then by all means. I don't regret I got it, but I wish I could tell you it is a must have.
Worth seeing, but pick it up CHEAP..... 
2006-06-21 - I gave this flick 4 stars for the gore. It is plentiful and convincing enough, especially given the budget(?). I had never heard of this flick, so I don't know if it really has a cult following or not. Maybe in Germany, but they'll watch ANYTHING. If you have a soft spot for low-budget splatter, and are very forgiving, you'll probably like this. It's kind of like a modern version of a Fred Olen Ray flick, but with no boobs. The gore and action are spread liberally throughout, so it never gets boring. There are a few(okay, many) glaring examples of poor or lazy scripting(like the dumb broad who watches in horror as her boyfriend is torn apart for like 4 minutes instead of running, yeah right), but nothing out of the ordinary for this type of movie. As a child of the 80's, the cheesy thrash metal, longhairs, and mullet models that made up the cast(and probably the crew) really took me back and made me feel nostalgic. The plot, such as it is, is this: a group of teenage stoners return from a concert to find a vampiric invasion of their sleepy jerkwater town well underway. Since one of the local teenage hicks has been battling the leeches for like 3 days already, he joins up with them, and they try to stay alive while searching for their friends and families. The whole thing takes place over 4 or 5 days. Like I said, the gore is good, and if that's all you're looking for, you will be pleased. But if you hate it when cheapjack flicks use day for night, this will irritate you to no end. Also, the transfer is kind of crappy. It seems choppy and slightly pixelated, as though they didn't really have the right equipment. It's not the worst I've seen, though. Maybe the source materials were just that bad, I dunno. This DVD has plenty of extras. I thought the reunion docu was actually pretty cool, it seems that this movie was something of a local phenomenon in the town where it was made. The teaser trailers for Darkness 2 & 3 seem more like wishful thinking, but, hey, good luck, dudes. Any way, this review is for the single-disc version. I can't see shelling out for a 2-disc version of this, even though I liked it. I paid 15 bucks for it, try to get it for 10 or less, and you should be quite happy with your purchase.
It's Okay... I Guess 
2006-06-13 - First things first, this movie is LOOOOOOOW Budget. It's cool that after all these years the movie finally gets a release, and the DVD is packed with extra's. I guess I can respect what the director was able to do with such a low budget, that said this still isn't necessarily a good movie. I bought this movie because I read a couple write ups online & saw an ad for it in Fangoria. Reading some of the write ups on the DVD's cover the movie is compared to "El Mariachi", "Dead Alive", "28 Days", & the first "Evil Dead" film. I'm sorry, but Lief Jonker is ABSOLUTELY not Jackson("DA"s effects blew this movie's away, not even comparable), if I had to compare this movie to one of Peter Jackson's I'd say it's closer to "Bad Taste". As far as Evil Dead, the guy's gotta be just name dropping because again there's just absolutely no comparison. And as far as comparing the realism to that of "28 Days", don't even get me started, even "Trainspotting" which is only comparable because it was Boyle's first film was miles ahead. Rodriguez' "EM" is a world ahead of this movie, at least you belive in the characters if nothing else. "Darkness"s acting is horrible, you wanna just get up and smack the main vampire for being such a dork. The gore, while there are a couple well done scenes the majority doesn't really look all that real, in most cases the blood looks like Kool-Aid & the wounds look like Play-doe. Don't even get me started with the realism of the movie, take the chainsaw scene for example, if you took one to a hand like they do in the movie, I'm sorry but the hand is coming off instantly, there won't be any poking little holes in the hand with the nose of the chainsaw. The story is only your basic vampire takes over town story. This movie, while it is neat Leif was able to do what he did with such a low budget and such a long period of time really isn't anything exciting. I bought it believing this was going to be a hidden gem of horror films(I really, really wanted to like it), don't believe the hype. To give credit where credits due, this isn't like the horrible "Zombie Holocaust 1 & 2"(There's my name drop LOL)low budget, still pretty low though. I can respect the time and energy from the cast & crew that must've gone into this, I just can't help but think "home made movie" when I watch stuff like this. I just can't buy into the characters & story this way, call me superficial, just a better film stock makes a world of difference. If you can get into a low budget film, you might enjoy this movie, but know going in, this is a looow budgeted film. I'm not happy with the stuff Hollywood churns out these days either, but this isn't necessarily an alternative.
Great vampire release (but 5 years late)....
2006-06-12 - After purchasing and watching this movie, I can see why there is such a cult following. The movie was obviously made with very little budget, but the quality blew me away. The movie follows a town that gets taken over by vampires. They attack innocent people and drink lots of blood. The similarities to other vampire movies stops there, however. The acting in this movie is non-existent, but the action explods off the screen. The gore and death scenes are great, and I was shocked (Thats real blood, people). Chainsaw weilding maniacs, and ghouls of the night.
This movie took WAY too long in production, but the special features, and movie transfer are WELL worth the wait.
Great (Dare I say "B") vampire genre film.
Keep in mind this IS very low budget-so if you're expecting "Blade", you will be dissapointed.
