Dark Show

Director - Olivier Parthonnaud (Bad Mood, Noody: 3D)

Starring - Tim Charles (Flawless, Through the Fire), Matthew Mellalieu (Playing Dead, Demon), and Joanne McCallin (All the Pretty Fishes, Starting from Scratch)

Release Date - 2016

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Fear in the extreme"

Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     After four movies I've finally reached the end of my five film Wild Eye Releasing movie marathon.  Vicious and Suicide Club, though they are both not specifically horror, were absolutely amazing. I would recommend both of these films to any genre fan with confidence.  Sadly, The Death Pledge and Godforsaken were not that great.  In fact, both of these films were tough for me to finish and my tolerance for bad movies is pretty high.  The last film in the binge is the 2016 horror flick Dark Show from director Olivier Parthonnaud.  I once again want to thank Wild Eye and MVD for sending this one over.

     The film follows a reality television series who puts people in "extreme" situations.  Forced with low ratings they attempt to revamp the show by casting an actor from France.  However, their trip outdoors turns deadly when a tattooed man with a taste for blood starts killing the crew one by one leaving only the actor remaining.

     I went into this one thinking it was a found footage flick but I was surprised to see it wasn't.  Instead, it's filmed in a reality show type manner almost like Survivor and so forth.  This was an interesting spin on the genre especially for an indie production.  However, the pacing and story just wasn't enough to hold my attention.  The acting in this one was great.  The characters were very fitting to the story and the cast did a great job at moving the story along to a certain degree.  However, the characters blend in to the background more than they should.  They trade personality for heritage which doesn't make the scenes any more entertaining.  Accents don't equal personality.  The story for this one is very interesting, however, it doesn't work for a film that runs almost an hour and a half.  If they film would have stuck with just the scenes that pertained to the story the movie could have been a smooth 40 minutes or so which would have worked.  They way the movie is edited and cut now we have so many mind numbingly boring scenes following the characters wondering through the dark castle corridors.  It's painfully dull and really breaks the pacing of the film up.  Finally, the film has some bloody moments but for those of you looking for memorable kills and amazing gore will be greatly disappointed.  The movie is focused on the characters and the scenarios they are in.  Overall, Dark Show features a solid cast and has a very interesting concept but the idea falls apart on screen.  This is one you should skip.