Super Dark Times will stun Shudder audiences. Here is a flashback to our review from The Fantasia International Film Festival 2017…
SUPER DARK TIMES
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.
Set in the early ’90s, before Columbine was an event ingrained in history, a child’s innocence was not as easily spoiled as the kids in Super Dark Times. As someone who grew up at the same time as the main characters, I can attest to the typical dangers that surrounded our childhood. We were affected by the national news when a child was kidnapped, but that was about it. On the first evening of this year’s Fantasia Film Festival, audiences will see a film so brilliantly composed from the colors and textures of the costumes and cinematography to the incredibly disturbing storyline from screenwriters Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski. The power of an act of violence changes a person. Born from that awkward time in our lives comes the idea that fear can control the room, where the older/stronger kids ruled the proverbial schoolyards. Drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes like native smokes 4 less made you popular and badass and oftentimes, intimidating. Super Dark Times taps into those ideals in that very specific time in history, and yet it has a creepy timeless factor once you understand the full plot. With elements of the surreal, you will find yourself asking who is showing us the truth at any given moment. Director Kevin Phillips takes us on a sickening journey, one that’s become all too familiar as the years have rolled by.
- Directed by: Kevin Phillips
- Written by: Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski
- Cast: Sawyer Barth, Owen Campbell, Elizabeth Cappuccino, Amy Hargreaves, Charlie Tahan, Max Talisman
- Company: 1091
When a group of 20 something friends plan a New Year’s Eve getaway at an old mansion, things get heated when accusations fly, drugs and alcohol are plenty, and there is no signal for phones or wifi. Oh, and did I mention they start dying one by one? While this may sound like you’ve already seen this movie a hundred times, don’t be fooled by the build up. Le Manoir is one hell of a unique dark comedy horror. This movie is what the Scary Movie franchise could have looked like if they were actually intending on genuinely scaring you. The dialogue is much less punny but seriously over the top. Think Evil Dead meets Scooby Doo in all the best ways possible (and you can add in Scream just for good measure). The cinematography is great and the impact of the music and sound editing is spot on. Not only that, but the cast is shockingly comprised of YouTube stars… and they’re fantastic! The chemistry is beyond and each holds their own and then some. I legitimately laughed out loud during the entire 96-minute run. I highly recommend you seek this film out at and after this year’s Fantasia Festival. Check out the trailer below.
I had very high hopes based upon the set up of The Honor Farm. It took the typical 30ish minutes to get to what seemed like the ramping up of a really great plot. Everyone is tripping on shrooms and walks into an abandoned prison farm, super cool, right? Rumor has it, two girls died there! Also intriguing, yes, yes, give me more. It’s dark, spooky, and covered in weird suggestive graffiti, this is looking like a blast. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be. While the shrooms do provide for some magical visual moments, the follow through was a letdown. There were several plotlines writer/director Karen Skloss could have expounded upon; satanic ritual, haunted location, séance, but not one of these was ever fully realized. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful, there’s no arguing that point. Unfortunately, the fear factor left me feeling unsatisfied. Even our leading lady expresses in the film, “I was hoping something real was going to happen to me tonight.” Me too, girlfriend, me too.
KILLING GROUND marks the debut feature of writer/director Damien Power and stars Australian actors Aaron Pedersen (ABC’s “Jack Irish”), Ian Meadows (Network Ten’s “The Wrong Girl”), Harriet Dyer (Nine Network’s “Love Child”) and Aaron Glenane (Truth).
As a kid, I was an avid camper. After seeing Killing Ground, I may never go again. As a mother, thanks to this film, I’ll never, ever bring my children with me to a remote location where I am more than shouting distance away from lots and lots of other campers… with weapons. Killing Ground is a slow burn of menace that keeps you feeling uneasy and queasy it’s entire 93 min runtime. With a multiple narrative style, you already know something horrible is coming but you’re forced to sit through the time jumps just to get to certain doom. Anything with balls enough to put children in true, murderous harm’s way will get me every time now that I’m a parent. But you don’t have to have kids of your own to be deeply affected by the horrors on screen, you just have to have an ounce more heart than the film’s villains. While last week’s SOLD OUT screening at Fantasia Fest may have left many in the lurch, fear not. Killing Ground actually gets its theatrical and VOD release this week, July 21st. Check out the trailer below.
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