Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

ASouthernHorrorFan Julian Richards "Darklands" is a modern cult thriller-noir that plays on classic misbeliefs of Celts, pagans and gypsies based on common misconceptions that run through European society (not that the Americas are exempt from such poor quality judgment of cultural differences). The movie is a traditional display of western giallo film making and "Darklands" is as good an example of cult-pagan genre storytelling than contemporary films such as "Spellbinder" and "The Wicker Man". The story follows journalist Frazer Truick as he investigates the mysterious death of the brother of trainee journalist Rachel Morris. Delving deeper, Truick becomes convinced that the tragedy was murder, committed by a bizarre religious cult. But as the evidence unfolds, things take on a more sinister and potentially lethal significance for the reporter, as he becomes embroiled in devil worship, witchcraft and ultimately human sacrifice! (That is the official synopsis).For me this film is a captivating crime thriller and great example of 20th Century noir. The story is plays on mystery, intrigue and suspense in a classic style that is often associated with Italian giallo-most notably Argento's work. Even with the very obvious culture insensitivity that plagues the film, "Darkland" is a very interesting and mesmerizing story that slowly builds suspense through melodrama and eerie atmospheric effects. I did find the view of pagans, Celts and gypsies as some humanized boogeymen wrought with villainous intent a tad offensive, but in proper context as a fictional setting it is easy to swallow.The sound effects and cinematography used for "Darkland" is traditional 80's and 90's creepiness one expects in these suspenseful stories. The characters are classic and mysterious, well developed if needed and never over-indulged to the point of annoyance. Visually the film entertains with moments of post-industrial, neo-primal experimental theatrics that creates a wild urban paganism aesthetics. Usually these images are saved for post-apocalyptic or future-dystopia films. The witchcraft, or primitive traditional religious elements where minimal but when on screen became very effective. Mostly this is a great conspiracy, crime noir. "Darklands" is a very cool, classic cult thriller that offers a great witchy story, and plenty of suspense. The blood and gore is almost non-existent which was a bit of a bummer but over-all I enjoyed the film.

Theo Robertson !!!!! POSSIBLE SPOILERS !!!!!I did enjoy DARKLANDS for the most part but the more I thought about it afterwards the more it falls apart . The link between the occult and Celtic Welsh nationalism via David Keller , is there a connection ? Gypseys are common in some parts of Wales but they`re not Celts so how do they fit into the conspiracy ? In fact there`s so many characters in the film from different ethnic backgrounds ( Including a couple of black drug dealing car thieves - You won`t find that in EASTENDERS ) that any Celtic mythology and subtext becomes redundant . And as for the conspiracy itself , you mean EVERYONE in this Welsh industrial town was involved ? How`s that possible ? The same idea might work well in THE WICKER MAN because that film takes place on a closed community on a Scottish Island whose population is a few dozen people , but in a Welsh town involving a population of thousands it becomes insulting to ones intelligence .That said Julian Richards directs with a good ration of intrigue and atmosphere and it`d be a shame to see him disappear into obscurity . I hope to see him direct more films just as long as he isn`t allowed to write the script

elzarro It's a really boring film, but has it's highlights! The first hour of the film sucks, but the last 30 minutes are moderately good. One cool thing is when the main character, Frazer, drives around with his girl and if you watch the background they pass a power plant (some factory) and just a few seconds later they are going backwards passing the exact place again, but reverse... *lol* =) Anyway, the ending is cool too, I'm not going to spoil anything, but it does not end like most film does! =) Best regards, /Janne

acky Despite all of the feverish accolades on the box, I found this to be a conventional and dull film. The few scenes of the pagan ritual might be disturbing were there not some sub-portishead music playing on the soundtrack the entire time.The scenes of the gypsys living outside the power plant were grimy and creepy. I was very annoyed by the fact that this film compared itself to the great "The Wicker man." while that film was an attack on Christianity and organized religion, this film seems to just be about how bad and evil the religous cult is which I found kind of silly and reactionary.