"Dark Reel" Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

Dark Reel
Director: Josh Eisenstadt
Studio: North American Motion Pictures / Barnholtz Entertainment
Stars: Edward Furlong, Lance Henriksen, Tiffany Shepis
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 108 Mins.
Official Website: http://www.darkreel.com/






Going into this film I wanted to see “Dark Reel”, only because one of my favorite scream queen, Tiffany Shepis. Never did I expect that the film would be this good, especially in the acting department, when you have actors like Edward Furlong (Cruel World), Lance Henriksen (Alien Vs. Predator) and Tony Todd (Final Destination) in one film.

“Dark Reel” is loosely based on the rare crime scene footage of an unpublicized murder in 1958 of an actress named Scarlet May. The film is about B movie fan Adam Waltz (Edward Furlong), who wins a walk on role featuring scream queen, Cassie Blue (Tiffany Shepis). Thinking that everything in his life has changed, until he walks on to the set, where there’s a killer on the loose. His role in the film starts to get bigger, as a publicity stunt, when one of the actresses in murdered on the set of the film. Soon people start dropping dead, as Adam begins to realize that someone is murdering the people on the set for Publicity for this new film, as everyone involved is a suspect, in this film that costars Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator) Mercedes McNab (Buffy, Hatchet) and Tony Tood (Final Destination, Candyman).

Dark Reel is a fun and bloody B horror/mystery. One of the reasons, this was a fun film, the directing. Josh Eisenstadt’s direction was good. I liked how, he approaches this film, like a film- noir meets eighties horrors films, as it works on both levels. Even though there weren’t many death scenes, they were filmed and directed very well. I liked the fact that there was build up to each of those scenes. The scenes were bloody and gritty enough so that the effects don’t take over the scene and become too distracting and become another hack and slash film. It’s one of those things where it’s quality is better than quantity. Another thing that Eisenstadt does very well, the way he directs his actors, as I couldn’t believe that he was able to get very good performances from Edward Furlong, who has been terrible in anything that he’s done as of lately, and Lance Henriksen, who always gives the same performance, for most of his films, but not here. He also gets good performances from actors that I expect to be good in their roles. Tony Todd, whom I think gave a very good supporting performance, as it ranks as one of his best performances yet. He really knows how handle this dark material, especially in the scene where he’s talking to Henriksen’s character. That was a thing that makes film-noir type films entertaining. Also, I can’t forget to talk about Tiffany Shepis’ performance here. She’s an actress, who just keeps getting better in each film that she’s in. She really portrays the Cassidy Blue character very well, as she makes her character come off, as entertaining and film noir like. It’s roles like this and “Nympha” that are the reasons, why I enjoy watching her films.

The screenplay written by Adam Pope was the mostly good, even though there were a few flaws. The positives. One of the things that Pope did well with the screenplay was to write a story that would be fun to watch, as this film felt like something that was made in the eighties. One of the reasons that was fun, the way he treats the death scenes. The build-up to those scenes were written very well, while building some actual suspense, as you thought the killer was going to do one thing, but instead does the other. That makes the film fun and unpredictable. Another thing that made it very good, the fact that Pope does a good job developing the characters and story for most of the film. They were interesting, because the characters weren’t annoying and the story had interesting elements like the relationship that Furlong’s character was in or the supernatural and noir elements that were used to help build this mythology of Scarlet May. It made this film interesting and fun to watch.

If there was some flaws in Pope’s screenplay, they occur mostly in the last act, especially in the last twenty minutes, where the movie starts to come off the tracks, especially when the movie jumps one month later, after the events of the film. It seemed like that Pope was in a rush to get to the finish line, because there were a lot of gaps that could have destroyed the film, as there is clearly five or ten minutes missing. Don’t know if it’s in the editing room floor or was purposely done. It’s very noticeable. There is a chunk of information that is missing, from that part of the film. But it didn’t do enough damage, as there is enough good material and the fact that the film is supposed to be a slasher film.

Dark Reel is bloody entertaining noir-ish horror film that features very good performances by Edward Furlong, Lance Henriksen, Tony Todd, and Tiffany Shepis. It’s bloody fun and suspenseful film.

Review Rating: 3.5 Stars.