I Only Remember a Nightmare

Dark House Review

Although there seem to be mixed feelings about Jeepers Creepers and its sequel, I always enjoyed them. Since their release, I’ve heard some pretty awful things about director Victor Salva and while I agree that these things are absolutely horrendous, I try not to let one’s personal life effect how I feel about their work. So as soon as I got word of his newest release, Dark House, I was intrigued, hoping I’d get another film with the same feel as his previous creature-feature slasher flicks. While his newest project doesn’t exactly contain everything I loved about the Creepers films, it certainly does have an entire slew of other things that are just as good!

Nick has a gift, the power to see someone’s death, merely by touching them. On his 23rd birthday, he visits his mother in the institution in which she committed herself nearly 15 years earlier. The meeting doesn’t go quite as planned and his mother is involved in a terrible ‘accident’ that same day. When Nick learns of a house that his mother left for him in her will, he takes his now pregnant girlfriend, Eve, and best friend, Ryo, on a roadtrip to try and find out the secrets of his estranged father and his past that he’s dreamed about his entire life.

I have to admit, within the first five minutes of the film, I made up my mind that this was going to be bad. Not only did I see some bad acting on Luke Kleintank’s part, as Nick, but I also saw some of the worst CGI fire that I’ve seen in a while. I’m glad I stuck with it until the end, though because my final opinion could not be further from my initial one.

Dark House is like no other ‘haunted house’ movie I’ve seen before. There are plenty of slasher elements, which I loved, but as the story unfolds, there are also elements taken from several other horror sub-genres.

Tobin Bell did an outstanding job in his role as Seth. Seth is a completely different character than the one we’ve become accustomed to seeing Bell play and instead of the frail, dying genius that is “Jigsaw,” we get a powerfully frightening protector. Bell’s performance is one highlight in a film, which in my opinion, has many.

Aside from the weak fire effects I’ve already mentioned, everything else looks quite impressive. The blood effects are great and there is plenty of gore to go around. Things are not excessive, however, and everything fit perfectly into the scheme of what unfolds throughout the film. The final act is the most surprising, as we finally see that things aren’t quite what they seem. This movie threw some pleasant surprises my way and I am very happy with how it all turned out.

If you’re a fan of Victor Salva’s previous work, you definitely need to watch Dark House. Even if you don’t enjoy his other films, you should still give this one a chance, as it has a great deal to offer. The film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Cinedigm Entertainment.

I give this film 3.5 flying axes out of 5.

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