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DARKNESS
Written, Produced, and Directed by Lief Jonker
Edited by John T. Chance
Directoy of Photography - Franklin HardestyTobe - Gary Miller
Greg - Michael Gisick
Liven - Randall Aviks
Killy - Cena Donham
Leif Jonker's DARKNESS is everything John Carpenter's VAMPIRES should have been, and then some. It's dark, brooding, frightening, raw, exciting, disgusting...hell, I could bring in the editing team for Webster's to throw around adjectives all day long for a week and it still wouldn't be enough to do this film justice. Leif himself might differ with my sentiments, but what does he know? He's only the director, right? *insert wink here*
I started corresponding with Leif just before this past Christmas. So far he seems to be one of the nicest guys that I've come across in the industry. He never has a bad word to say about anyone and is always willing to offer up advice. Apparently he's pretty humble too, DARKNESS showed up on my desk with one of those "don't believe the hype" notes. Leif, I almost hate to break it to you buddy, but your movie far exceeds everything I've heard. Be proud, it's not every movie that holds up 10 years later.
For such a nice guy, it's surprising that Leif made such a nasty little movie. Some of the scenes just rain shotgun-prompted showers of blood. Viewers aren't even given the chance to grow numb to the violence as each sequence explodes with more chunk-blowing power than the last.
To hear me describe it, you would think I'm talking about the Second Coming of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. DARKNESS has more in common with J.R. Bookwalter's THE DEAD NEXT DOOR than it does Toby Hooper's seminal horror classic. With DARKNESS and THE DEAD NEXT DOOR, Leif and J.R. have both made Super 8 epics surpassing many of their Hollywood counterparts' 35mm efforts. They prove that by combining hard work with a true love for horror you can produce something deserving enough to be remembered decades down the road.
DARKNESS revolves around Tobe, a kid who hides behind a candy rack during the opening sequence, a shootout between Cops and Vampires in the middle of a Convenience store. Timid at first, Tobe has to find within himself the strength to go and avenge the death of just about everyone in town. To do so, he has to first survive the murderous advances of everyone in town.
Fueling Tobe's journey into overnight adulthood is a genuinely eerie industrial soundtrack adding the perfect blend of exhilarating dread and somber rage. I've had slight problems with other projects using musical scores to stand in for the lack of a non-sync natural soundtrack. Two prime examples are THE MUTILATION MAN and ICE FRO M THE SUN, both brilliant experimental films, but the soundtracks carried the story. With DARKNESS' more linear construction, the soundtrack complements rather than carries.
There's been talk of re-release of DARKNESS on DVD. Leif wants to re-master and re-cut the film, having never been satisfied with the transfer. According to underground legend, the movie was projected onto white cardboard and videotaped. The video was then cut analog. I wonder if all the work Leif wants to do would be worth the effort. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just get the movie out there so others can see what truly great underground horror really is.
DARKNESS DVD update
Looking back at Lief Jonker's microcinema masterpiece DARKNESS is like watching an a new movie, which it basically is. Jonker has gone back and given the movie a proper film transfer. The original was done on a white cardboard in Jonker's home. He's taken the brighter, crisper footage and re-cut the movie, making it both bigger and leaner at the same time. He's added moments back into the movie but he's tightened up some the bad edits. Jonker has also reworked the score.
All of that's nothing new, word on the internet for years has made known of Jonker's efforts to finally get his movie right. Unlike George Lucas, who has foul called on him by every wanna-be Jedi fanboy for messing with "their" classic, fans of Jonker's work have applauded his efforts for giving them what they want - a proper presentation for a horror classic that helped usher in the underground film movement of the 1990's.
It's hard for me to tell readers anything different about the movie than what's already written in the previous review, which was one of the first movies ever reviewed on this site. My thoughts are still the same, just that the movie is now even more rocking and harder edged.
Jonker found the right company for this release with Barrel Entertainment, a company specializing in releasing top of the line showcases for no-budget genre fare, such as their releases for NEKROMANTIK and THE HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET. I've only had the pleasure of viewing their LAST HOUSE package and it's a winner, but DARKNESS far outshines that release.
Viewers who pick up the extremely affordable 2-disc set of DARKNESS will see that Barrel has gone above and beyond the call of duty to release the single best release for a film of this size an scope ever. There are two version of the movie; the other cut being that cardboard/analog transfer. At one point, in years past, Jonker was gracious enough to tell me that B-Indi was part of the reason that version was to be included. Bless his already nice guy heart for lying to me; we all know the reason the movie was included is because it's still good after all these years.
The new cut of the movie features 3 commentary tracks as well as commentary on all bonus material including a making-of featurette, music videos, behind-the-scenes material, an extended cut of the climax, a photo gallery, and promotional spots. The second disc featuring the original film, also has alternate commentary and music on all featurettes including a massive 1000+ picture photo archive, highlights from various film festivals, more deleted scenes, more trailers and promotional spots, as well as various television clips from a broadcast premier to a public access television interview with Jonker. If you include commentaries, that's about 18 hours of material on these two discs which far outguns any of Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS releases
If you're even simply a casual fan of independent horror or underground cinema, you NEED to pick up this disc. You won't find a better presentation for this sort of movie anywhere.
13th Dream Entertainment
Barrel Entertainment