"Of Darkness" Review - Written By Anthony Thurber

Of Darkness
Year: 2008
Director: Gary Irwin
Studio: Eventide Productions
Stars: Frank Nardi, Dallas Scott, Adam Montgomery
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 21 Mins
Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/ofdarkness




“Of Darkness” is a short film that I have been looking forward to seeing in a while. I came into this film with a set of high standers after hearing this has torn up the film festival circuit. The film has played many film festivals while picking up Best Short Film honors at the 2008 Frightnight Film Festival, 2007 Full Moon Horror Festival, 2007 Atlanta Horrorfest, 2007 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and 2007 Dread Central & VersusMedia Short Film Competition. Did this film live up to the standard that I’ve set?

“Of Darkness” is about two brothers who come across an old case that was left with their grandfather’s belonging. The brothers opened it up to find ancient book that is mysterious and malicious. Then, during a sleepover, which one of the brothers was having while the other was out, one of the kids opens the book up. He then lets out an entity that is very violent. Soon the entity targets the boys and their night of fun turns into darkness, as they must find away to escape whatever fate this entity has for them.

Thankfully “Ok Darkness” succeeded to my standards and then some, as this is truly of one of the most shocking short films that leave you terrified. It’s films like this that makes me support the short film genre, as these directors carefully craft their filmmaking and do it in a way that at the end of the film, you feel either relived that you’ve seen a good film or felt shocked with the ending.

Director Gary Irwin was dead on with his direction. He did a great job making a twenty short become totally intense. Irwin does that by making the atmosphere very dark and creepy with subject matter that most directors won’t touch. Irwin achieves that by keeping the film story very dark and disturbing through out the twenty-one minute running time. He also does a great job with the direction of his young actor. Young actors are usually the hardest to direct in any movie, but what Irvin does here was just brilliant. He achieves that by not letting the kids in the film become annoying or totally obnoxious. Instead, Irwin does a great job in helping make the young actors make their characters very scared and horrified with the event. This makes this film very shocking and frightening.

Matt Casale’s screenplay also makes this film great. One of the things that he did with the screenplay was to go all out, as this film has some very disturbing subject matter, which many writers won’t go there. The subject matter in this film makes this film more horrifying and disturbing. It’s also something that makes this film original, which makes the horror elements very effective. Speaking of the horror elements, Casale does a great job in not letting up on the creepiness of his story. He does that so it doesn’t give a chance for the story to go in a completely different direction, which might be annoying or come off as an “Are You Afraid of the Dark” episode. He develops the story and its characters very well. Casale does that by keeping the action in one place and making the supernatural elements very frightening. It makes the characters focus on the crises at hand, which makes the story effective.

With the year almost done, it surprises me that two short horror films may have a very good chance of making my top 10 horror list of 08, as this may not be last time you hear me talk about this film. Director Gary Irwin and writer Matt Casale are two people that people should be keeping an eye on in the future. ”Of Darkness” is a creepy and eerie short film that will leave you horrified.

You can purchase this film, on the production company official website at: http://www.eventideproductions.net/

Review Rating: Five Stars

Upcoming Screenings:
November 26: Rembrandt’s Restaurant & Bar, Philadelphia PA, 8PM