A Brilliant Conflict

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Regardless of what I think of writer/director Victor Salva as a person, I must admit that I really like most of his movies! Fact remains that Salva knows what frightens people. He made some unforgivable mistakes in the past, but really all the felonies that brought him in the news are not my business. My only interest goes out to his directing skills and I can safely say he's one of the few directors out there that approach the horror genre with the right attitude. "Clownhouse" is a very good (and underrated) 80s horror classic, "Nature of the Beast" is vintage 90s thriller material and I do most definitely rank "Jeepers Creepers" (parts I and II) among the best and most genuinely unsettling genre outings of the new millennium. Yes, seriously! I've been waiting for the third film in the series to get released for years now, but production apparently still hasn't started yet! Salva's name hence was my sole motivation to seek out "Dark House", which otherwise just looks like a passable and thirteen-in-dozen backwoods horror movie. This isn't Salva's best work by far, but it definitely still contains a handful of good story ideas, creative plot twists, macabre set pieces and grisly make-up effects. 23-year-old Nick Di Santo is blessed – or burdened – with the supernatural gift of being able to see other people's deaths when he touches them. Nick is also searching for the truth regarding his past, particularly who his father is and where do the recurring nightmares originate from. A traumatic visit to his mother in the asylum teaches Nick that he, in fact, owns a mysterious old house that has vanished in a flood. When he and his friends (including his 8-month-pregnant girlfriend) eventually discover the house, its entrance is blocked by a creepy hermit and an army of axe-wielding and dreadlocked monstrosities… Welcome home, Nick! There are quite a few plot aspects that initially seem strange and rather silly, like the recurring strange voice coming from basements through ventilation holes and frequent references towards Biblical myths as well as towards the number 23 (where have I seen that before…) but eventually they all do make sense. If there's one thing you have to hand to Victor Salva, it's his ability to bring new variations to old clichés (depiction on demons, paradoxes, deserted towns…) and his courage to insert shock-twists and unconventional endings. "Dark House" ("Haunted" is such an awfully mundane title…) contains a couple of nasty killings and bloody make-up effects, but overall I hoped it would have been gorier. Tobin Bell, also the co- producer, gives a good menacing performance and it was particularly a relief to see him in a different role than the tiresome and annoyingly arrogant Jigsaw character! "Dark House" is an enjoyable little side project, Mr. Salva, thank you for that, but now please pull yourself together and start filming "Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral"!

Ever since his early childhood, Nick Di Santo has been drawing images of a certain house and can only think that it has something to do with his family history and the location of his father, who he's been searching for. When Nick gets information on the possible location of this mysterious house, he sets off to see if he can find it. Nick also has the special ability to see how people will meet their deaths by mere touch. After almost crashing off the road, Nick meets three State ordinance workers who give him information regarding the house and decide to help him find it. When they do find the house they are warned off by a mysterious stranger named Seth advising Nick to stay away. Of course, Nick doesn't do this and soon he and his friends are fighting for their lives.At first glance, Dark House seems to be a badly filmed, badly acted B Movie. After actually watching it, however, I'm happy to report that it isn't any of these. On saying that, though, it's obviously not the best movie out there, but at the same time it's definitely not the worst either.The plot and the story of the movie isn't actually that bad but it just falls apart a wee bit with some inconsistencies at the end which is a bit of a pity because if it had a stronger ending it could have been a much better film. Seems to be a bit of a thing with the director, because Jeepers Creepers started off well but got a bit ridiculous for the last third.Dark House is basically a Heaven vs Hell movie which saved it for me a wee bit because I do enjoy the Angel vs Demon mythology. Some of the scenes - especially ones that include the Axemen - are filmed pretty well, bringing a good level of tension to them and the atmosphere that is created throughout these scenes is also nicely done.It's not a slow going film by any means either, but it definitely lacks a certain something to make it a much more gripping film to enjoy.Overall, Dark House is a decent film but just don't expect too much.

I was pleasantly surprised by "dark house" and that doesn't happen often. I'm movie crazy, I probably go through 5 full length movies a day, every single day! So when I say I've seen everything, heard everything, been through every filmmakers tricks, traps and cheesy plot twists....I really have seen it all. As much as I love movies I can't stand low budget grade b stuff, I avoid it like the plague. But this was a well made movie, the acting was solid and so was cameras, sound, makeup, special effects, etc. "dark House" had an interesting kind of like fantasy/sci fi feel to its monsters and I really enjoyed it. There are a million scary house in the woods movies but this movie had a fresh approach that keeps it interesting. The action moved at a good pace and the plot was fun and inventive. I recommend this movie, don't miss this thrill ride.

I'm not going to go into a bunch of details about this movie but I was pleasantly or maybe unpleasantly surprised. It had a good cast, good direction, good story, good action, good scares, and good creepy characters. All in all a very entertaining movie. I did rate it high on the star scale because I feel some people did not give it enough credit with the stars. I believe it should be at least a 6.5 to seven but people really are hard to please. Thats one reason I do not go by the star rating on IMDb unless it is below a 3.5. Yes, there were a few things that you maybe would think "how would that happen" but with a haunted horror flick you can get away with some unusual things. I also thought the story was fresh with a small twist and I did not feel I was watching something I had seen before. The other thing I really liked about it were some really creepy characters that had very unusual and creepy moves throughout the movie. I hope this helped you to decide to watch this move and give it a chance. I do not feel it was a waist of my time and was better that some of the recent mainstream horror movies I have see lately.