Platypuschow Telling the story of a girl in a rehab centre who is offered a job that turns out to be her kidnapping and torture from religious zealots.Though the films production values are decent, the quality of the writing cannot be accused of the same.Messy generic plot that is as interesting as a 3 week old banana peel, instantly forgettable stuff.Elisabeth Rohm stars and I can't figure out for the life of me why, she is so above this tosh.With not a redeeming feature to its name Darkroom is not what I expected at all and sadly not something worth acknowledging again.The Good:Production values are decentElisabeth RohmThe Bad:Incredibly dullNo originalityPredictibleThings I Learnt From This Movie:With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion

Claudio Carvalho After a deadly car accident with three victims, the traumatized Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) is sent to a group therapy with Rachel (Elisabeth Röhm). She recovers from the trauma and Rachel recommends that Michelle needs to work to prove that is healed. Rachel gives a card with a job opportunity at the company called "Darkroom Inc.". Michelle arrives at a mansion and is hired, but soon she discovers that she is trapped inside the house with other girls and three deranged and sadistic siblings that intend to purge her from her sins. "Darkroom" is an awful torture movie with a messy non-linear screenplay and one-dimensional characters. Unfortunately I glanced at the bad reviews (100%) but I decided to give a chance to "Darkroom" and watch this terrible film. My vote is two.Title (Brazil): "Casa do Medo" ("Fear House")

Phillip Tomasso III Darkroom (There Are No Links to Purchase this movie on DVD).This was written by two-time writer Michaelbrent Collings, and directed by Britt Napier. This was Napier's debut as a director. The cast consists of Britne Oldford as Jean, Christian Campbell as Larry, Tobias Segal as Daniel, Elisabeth Rohm as Rachal, and stars Kaylee Defer as Michelle -- whom I loved in Red State.The pros about this film. There are many. The quality of filming is outstanding. The scenes are tight, and dramatic. The dark and light contrast works. The video footage is done well. The acting by each of those listed above, very well done. And this is rare in horror films. But I applaud all performances. The director did a great job of telling the story. The story, sick and twisted, and pretty solid.The cons. I wish there weren't any. I really wanted to like this film. But over all, I didn't really care either way. And for me the issue came down to pacing. In Darkroom, Michelle is locked away in an institution for being wasted while driving and causing an accident that killed three of her friends. Her counselor, Rachel, wants to help -- but if Michelle won't open up about the past, then she doesn't see Michelle getting released any time soon. Jean, on the other hand, is new to the group, and due to full participation, is quickly released. This upsets Michelle. Rachel helps those in the institution by getting them work with a "friend." The giant mansion is a photo studio for models. Only it's really a torture asylum for those who sin and refuse to repent. Run by a sick family of siblings (Larry, Daniel and surprise-surprise Rachel), they lock women in the basement and convince them that confessing and admitting sin is the only way to forgiveness and salvation. There is still no escape, but at least you can die knowing you are now right with God.Trapped in a basement room with a television (to watch the horrors unfold against other sinners) Michelle realizes that she ... and Jean, are in a lot of trouble. The only trouble is, pacing. It is 24 minutes into this short 81 minute movie before anything "really" happens, and even once it does start happening there is a viewer-disconnect. I didn't feel any sense of ... urgency on behalf of anyone in the film. Neither to torture, or escape . . . Again, the actors did a great job. I think the writing and directing were good, too. There just seemed to be something lacking.There is plenty of violence. A lot of use of drills, box cutters and wrenches. There is partial nudity, and some "bad" language. All in all, I can only give Darkroom 3 out of 5 Tombstones.http://www.philliptomasso.com/

bob_meg It's hard to relay how effectively this film delivers absolutely nothing of value.I know...all you have to do is check out the posters and read the synopsis to know we're not shooting for a film brimming with deep, meaningful artistic content. But seriously? Darkroom starts up with a mildly interesting premise, even though it is duct-taped onto the very well-worn "lure the pretty girl into danger" trope. Kaylee Defer (in all fairness, delivering an OK performance given the material) plays Michelle, a girl who's doing time in a juvenile facility after killing three of her friends in a drunk driving accident. DeFer plays these opening scenes with a nice air of shell shock. At least there seems to be something inside herself that she's trying to effectively relay. She's lured to a sprawling mansion that's far too awesome to be in the company of these filmmakers --- it lends a very creepy, imposing atmosphere. One would think that the people residing in this house would be fairly interesting. They obviously would have some style, some flash, some character --- even if it were dark and twisted.Well, here's where Michaelbrent Collings script really drops the ball. The three antagonists, when not cribbing straight from the abused family-of-wackjobs movie handbook (bullying older male sib, domineering female sib, bullied and repressed younger male sib) come across as nothing more than common thugs who like to play with power tools. They're supposedly right-wing Christian extremists, but they act and talk like white trash hillbillies. Their methods are not scary, creepy, or menacing. They're just brutal and disgusting. And boring, unless a trip to Home Depot sends you into a full-tilt panic attack. Yes, I'm sure it's terrifying in real life to be attacked with a power drill or a hack saw. Not so much on the screen, especially when you could care less if any of these people survive.Darkroom is like an anti-Hostel. You can argue that both films depict the same thing, and rightfully so. What Eli Roth brought to the table in those films, though, were characters and situations that drew you into watching...and caring. Characters had quirks, eccentricities, and nuances that at least made them memorable...especially the villains. Darkroom has *none* of these things. It's bad guys are nothing but stiff, blank-slated cyphers. And not in a creep-out amoral Michael Myers way, either.So why does one write a film such as this? Had to be the cash, I guess. Which I must admit irritates me. It completely degrades the work of everyone on a project this size.Any possible reason beyond spilled CGI gore has been ripped off from thousands of other, better horror films (abusive families beget abuse, wow -- how deep). Inexplicably, the film ends with a home movie of the torturers as children, happy as all get-out, playing on the front lawn of the mansion. Not sure how the writer thought we would actually care about these cardboard cut-outs. The shot is as mystifying as why Phase 4 (a normally very discriminating distributor) would release this pile of gutless garbage.