Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Simply A Masterpiece

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

On a lazy Saturday night, I came across a film that piqued my interest, "Ghosts of Darkness".The premise starts off simple enough, a ghost hunter and a medium are invited to a house to prove that it isn't haunted. Each are offered $50,000.00 USD to spend three days within the house and at the end declare the house is safe from any sort of paranormal activity.The two investigators are at odds almost immediately upon meeting one another. One a staunch skeptic, the other a whimsy medium. As they spend the days (and nights) in the house, it becomes very clear everything isn't as it once appeared to be. You can tell this is a budget b-horror film from the get go, but that isn't always a bad thing. The cinematography is of average quality, the special effects aren't terrible and the two actors are actually really good.This film has a lot of comedy in it and when I first started watching it, it almost had a "Beetlejuice" vibe to it.Further (and this is my favorite part), the writers took time to explain almost every aspect of the film, from character's back stories, to the house's history, why it was haunted and wrapped it all up in a decent little package.I'll be blunt, this will NOT be the best horror/comedy you'll ever see. But it won't be the worst either. It's worth giving it a go if you need to get your horror fix on.

It still amazes me how people involved in a film can manage to mangle it so bad that it comes off as a joke. Such is the case for "Ghosts of Darkness." I rarely go on about a movie this bad, but I'm going to make an exception here because this movie had potential--the house and its back story. However, given what was put on the screen, you'd never know it.Two paranormal researchers are contacted by a mysterious man who offers them each $50,000 if they can stay in a house with a gruesome history. Jonathan is a medium; Jack is the "I'm-not-going-to- believe-anything-unless-it-bites-me-in-the-ass" dude. If that isn't bad enough, he also has the personality of a fence post. Mystery man takes their cell phones and car keys and tells them they will be locked in for the next 36 hours. They are each given $25,000 up front and told they'll get the remaining $25,000 upon completion of their "project." This is where the film went off track completely, and if you're smart, you'll realize what I'm talking about. For a movie to rely on two people, those people should have some kind of chemistry. That is nowhere to be found. Jonathan acts as though the entire project is a joke. Jack acts as if he's just been hit in the head with a brick. The director couldn't make up his mind if he wanted a comedy or a horror movie and although you can have elements of both in a movie, you need to know how to blend those elements. It also would help if your characters could ACT. It was pretty evident to me the guy cast to play the "tortured soul", a/k/a Jack, couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. The character of Jonathan looked eerily like Gary Oldman's character of Sirius Black (from the Harry Potter movies). Another suggestion is to STOP with this crap of CGI demons. They are not scary and give me an impression you're too lazy to hire real makeup artists. Rated "R" for violence, disturbing images, and language.

Got this on VUDU, had a cool poster advertising it so looked promising but how I was wrong, first off the greatest investigators don't know about the house, they do no research and they move around with no plan yet supposedly best in the field but no idea what to do. The music is weak, the dah-dumb dah-dumb constantly playing in repeated motifs at the same volume detracts from the stunning cinematography pushing a creepy feel, also there is a scene where paul flannery's character is explaining the ouija board and some happy music starts playing, it kills the vibe of the scene before it even starts. Also this is not a horror, its not even close to one, its not scary at any point, and it seems like the producer decided halfway through filming to go a comedy route as the opening of the movie to 30 mins in, changes completely in tone in the later half. Paul Flannery who plays Jonathan Blazer however is absolutely amazing, this dude cracks me up, delivering a performance which will secure him for many future film productions. The CGI that is used was a waste of money, it did nothing to help, only destroy the movie, it kills it seriously. Bar the cinematography and the performance by Flannery, this movie is awful.

Firstly the positives: the poster, awesome. Very Army of Darkness feel. Secondly: Paul Flannery - delivery was great, just a hint of light-heartedness & gravitas. Thirdly: cinematography was good - not enough dark or shadows but generally OK. . Sadly that's where the positives stop. . Unfortunately Michael Koltes was flat & delivery was ordinary. His timing & tone need work. His facial expression was just as flat. There was a lot of "Dean Winchester" style about the character without the bluster, fun or aggression. . The story was fairly typical of this type of movie & had potential to be a fun/action movie. . Certainly not the best movie nor the worst.