Dark Reel Doesn’t Break New Ground, but Stays firmly Planted in Horror circa 1990s
In Dark Reel the story and gore are acceptable, the characters are pretty good and the cast is phenomenal.
Written by The Horror Czar
May 12, 2009
Release: March 10, 2009 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: Josh Eisenstadt
Written by: Josh Eisenstadt and Aaron Pope
Starring:
Lance Henriksen as Connor Pritchett
Daniel Wisler as Tall Man
Edward Furlong as Adam Waltz
Tiffany Shepis as Cassie Blue
Rena Riffel as Detective LaRue
Tate Hanyok as Elizabeth
Alexandra Holden as Scarlett May
Edward (Adam Waltz) is a pretty tragic loser. He can’t keep a job, he stalked his girlfriend to Los Angeles only to whine to her on the phone every night about taking him back, and he has pretty goofy sideburns. Ahh, but his luck is about to change. He found an entry form to win a walk-on role in a horror movie, and he won. When he visits the set of the pirate-themed film and comes face to face with the actress of his dreams, Cassie Blue (Tiffany Shepis), things really start looking up.
The days of shooting the pirate/horror film are bittersweet for Edward. On one hand, the beautiful starlet Cassie Blue has
taken a fancy to Ed, as unlikely as that may be. The bad news? There is a murderous psycho in a blond wig killing off the cast one by one. Can Ed help keep his new love safe and still ward off suspicion that he himself is the killer?
Dark Reel is standard horror that is fun to watch and will keep your attention from beginning to end. The whodunit storyline is very good and the kill scenes are imaginative and appropriately graphic. The fact that the killer has a propensity to cut the victims into multiple pieces adds to the enjoyment for gorehounds, at least this one.
The cast of Dark Reel is very interesting and diverse, and makes the film worth seeing just for the film icons and oddities. Lance Hendriksen plays a studio executive and is pretty over the top, but it is still Lance Hendriksen so he can basically do no wrong. Adam Waltz as the male lead Edward 
Furlong is a bit tougher to take, not because he lacks talent but because he seemed a bit mis-cast for this role. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that a successful B-movie starlet is going to randomly fall in love with this guy off the street. If he was cool… or funny… or good looking… or anything, then I could get past the doubt. Waltz plays this character with none of these traits.
Tony Todd (Candyman) plays a detective investigating the murders, and is unfortunately a bit of a throwaway character in this film. I always considered Todd one of the creepier horror movie villains, but the dark Gothic feel he needs to shine was not present in this particular horror show, as much as he tried to make it so.
The real star of the film is Troma Queen Tiffany Shepis as Cassie Blue. This woman is credited with acting in over 60 films, not bad for an actress of 29. In most of her credits she is the horror victim, or horror villain, or horror something… and she is often billed as a budding “scream queen”. Admittedly, I had never seen Shepis in a film before, not that I remember anyway. In Dark Reel she was pretty darn good. She reminds me of a starlet from the olden days of Universal Pictures, and I hope to see her in some Uber-Budget Action/Adventure film at some point. With my luck she’ll instead opt for the romantic comedy now that Meg Ryan is about 100. I’ll never see her then.
Overall, Dark Reel is a solid horror film with good gore, nice plot and a cast to rival any in B-Horror Land. Don’t expect earth-shattering originality or deep and significant meaning, but if you are in the mood for chopped up body parts and an Urban Legend 2 feel, you’ll be satisfied. Add a six-pack and call it a night. Questions or comments about Dark Reel? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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