Title: Dark House (2014)
Director: Victor Salva
Runtime: 102 minutes
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Dark House is the latest horror offering from director Victor Salva. He’s best known for the two Jeepers Creepers films. The first one is great, while the second one is a little different, to say the least. I didn’t even know Dark House existed until Branden was like, “Hey, you know there’s a new Victor Salva film out today, right?”
Nick Di Santo (Luke Kleintank) has always had visions about this creepy house. Upon his mother’s death, he inherits the very house in his dreams. So he grabs some friends, and they venture off to this creepy abandoned house in the middle of the woods.
Once they arrive they run into Seth, played by Tobin Bell (best known as Jigsaw from the Saw series), and then some killer hunchbacks appear with axes. The group tries to escape, but every time they think they are away from the house, they end up right back at it.
Dark House feels like a pilot episode for the latest CW supernatural thriller. The blood and special effects are pretty good, and the acting isn’t too bad either. It’s a very slow burn, and frankly, I don’t care for the film at all. It just keeps going with nothing really happening. The fact that Nick has the power to see people’s deaths in advance also hinders a few moments for me because you know what’s coming. There are also strange moments of things talking through the vents of the house, which are just comical.
Then something happens.
At this point, the film does a complete 180. The plot finally gets interesting, and I’m completely sold, hook, line and sinker. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a nice twist. The ending is a bit abrupt, though, and I don’t really care for how loosely everything is tied up.
I don’t love Dark House, but it’s a solid enough film that I recommend horror fans check out if it hits any streaming services. The DVD offers a shallow, 20-minute making-of featurette that doesn’t really dive into the plot at all. If you enjoyed Salva’s other film – Jeepers Creepers – then you’ll probably like Dark House.
Chris was raised on horror films, which gave him a deep love for the genre, especially its most quirky and offbeat titles (like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2). This love quickly turned into an obsession for cinema in 1997, when he decided he needed to see every major theatrical release. Video games (JRPGs), reading (anything but fantasy), and reality television (Survivor) are just some of his other passions. He’s been with Cinefessions since 2013, and has been writing reviews all over the internet for the past twelve years.
I agree with you dude. It is a decent enough offering for horror fans! Not perfect, far from amazing, but a fun time at the very least. I think a lot of the critics bashing it have no knowledge when it comes to horror films. Or else they would know that this is a better offering than most of the junk that gets shoved into the genre….
The biggest problem with most reviews I read on Dark House, which honestly wasn’t a lot because I hadn’t heard of the film until a day or two before renting it, was the problem people have with the director himself and his past, which I purposely left out of my review as I felt it had no standing merit with the film itself.
I was actually texting with Branden after I watched the film and said it’s a shame that Salva doesn’t get better or more different work because he excels at making you care about characters and bringing them to life. This also jumps back to my review of “In Fear” which starts off very much like “Jeepers Creepers” with two people in a car for an extended amount of time but JC was able to make you feel a bond between the two while IF kind of falls flat in that regard.
Not sure if you’ve seen it or not but Salva’s “Rosewood Lane”. Which I didn’t review but did recently watched (after Dark House actually) and while it’s a big of a mess in the plot area, the tension and creepy factor are rather well done.