Darkroom (2013 Video) User Reviews

I can't really tell why I didn't like it

[benegesserit20 · 4/10 · 8 May 2014]

This review contains spoiler, please do not read it before watching the movie.

Darkroom is about a girl, who caused a car accident DUI that kills 3 of her friends traveling with her. Later, she gets into a rehabilitation center (probably after jail-time, it doesn't mentioned, only that she couldn't continue school afterwards). When she gets out, she takes on a job with the help of her counselor. Though, the job turns out to be a nightmare in which 3 crazy siblings with troubled background torture and kill 'sinner' girls.

The movie applies a very interesting multiple-timeline structure so we can figure out what's going on. The plot is decent. The leading actress was even a familiar face from Gossip Girl. Yet, the whole thing made me feel only indifference and I can't really tell why. Maybe, because the protagonist girls was so terribly unlikeable. Or because the things happening were either too random or too forced. Maybe because the story just failed to become a whole. Maybe because too much misfortune was tried to be pushed into a single story (a foster girls kills friends, ends up with a psycho counselor, who happens to have 2 psycho brothers, one of whom has other mental problems too, and the cherry on top is that their psycho mother managed to raise all 3 of them equally psycho.) OK, now that I wrote this last part, I think this is it. It's like Remember Me. Overwhelmingly too much. That, and the fact that I just couldn't care for the girl. A pity, I guess.

Good but not great ...

[parry_na · 5/10 · 21 June 2018]

Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) is a somewhat petulant, tortured soul. She is pretty blonde, and in possession of a throaty, scratchy voice guaranteed to dissipate into an airy rasp should she be moved to scream in horror - and she has plenty of reason to here.

Told in sometimes confusing flashbacks, Michelle has been institutionalised because she caused an accident which killed three of her friends whilst under the influence of alcohol. She's not particularly remorseful, showing scant regard for any rules or regulations at the rehab facility. Daniel (Tobias Segal), who seems well-meaning, and Rachel (Elisabeth Rohm), who is in authority, are revealed as having their own dark secrets, a revelation that attempts to vindicate Michelle's earlier lack of respect for them - even though she cannot possibly have known of their out-of-hours activities.

They are religious extremists, steering their faith towards 'purging' inmates of their sins by torturing them at a secret location. And there you have the plot. We spend the rest of the time watching Michelle try to escape their clutches.

The low budget on display works in the film's favour, with non-slick locations revelling in their enclosed dinginess and grainy imagery. We are expected to side with Michelle but given scant reason to, other than the fact that the other characters are more misguided than she is. It is unspectacular but solid, with good performances and a good atmosphere of hopelessness. It isn't quite 'torture porn', but there are some nasty inferences all explained by a familiar perversion and the easy target of religious abuse. There are some nice moments of melancholy - flashbacks of innocent children playing contrasting well with the sporadic bouts of violence - but where 'Darkroom' falls down is that it isn't terribly involving due to the unsympathetic, sketchy characters.

Terrible Ending

[damianphelps · 3/10 · 11 September 2020]

Something about this movie just kept missing the mark, leaving me unsatisfied and and very Meh!

The acting is actually really good but not enough to save the film. In some parts of the films its a poor mans Hostel but not in a good way.

The stupidest part of the movie involves the revealing of the backstory of the baddies OMG, of course you would have those details just lying around WTF!

The ending is simply horrible, I was going to give this a 4 (largely due to the acting) however ending just sucks.

I can't think of a good reason why you would watch this unless you are related to someone in the movie?

Biggest waste of time I've ever seen

[fujikid · 1/10 · 13 July 2013]

I rented this today based on the 7.8 score it was showing here.

A few hours later and I felt compelled to join IMDb and try to correct the status by making my first ever comment in the vague hope I can save a few people a couple of hours of their time.

This is without any doubt one of worst movies I've ever seen. The characters are completely flat, the acting appalling and the story is simply non-existent.

I know this can often be the case in low budget horror movies, even some that have become cult classics, but when you add ...

... it's not in the least bit frightening ... there is zero suspense ... there's nothing to make you jump ... and there's not even much blood for the gore fans.

It fails to press a single button. There's not even enough here to achieve the so bad it's entertaining moniker.

Simply amazing! Fails to even be compelling torture porn

[bob_meg · 1/10 · 10 November 2013]

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.

Darkroom: Just plain bad

[Platypuschow · 2/10 · 4 January 2018]

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 decent

Elisabeth Rohm

The Bad:

Incredibly dull

No originality

Predictible

Things 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

Awful

[claudio_carvalho · 2/10 · 14 July 2014]

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")

Netflix Movie Review: Darkroom

[Phillip_Tomasso · 21 November 2013]

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/

A darkroom is not that bright

[movieman_kev · 2/10 · 5 January 2014]

Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) finds herself trapped in a rather foreboding, dimly lit mansion terrorized by a sinister family after taking a job recommendation (the last you'll the word recommendation in regards to this boring little film, by the way, but I digress) A majority of the film is told in flashbacks, meandering, badly acted,excruciatingly dull flashbacks. I suspect to pad the rather thin material that the movie does possess. So what we have is what could've been a passable short film (that's being extremely generous) stretched out to a dreary, sleep-inducing sub-par saw-ripoff feature film. I hesitate to give this film a 1 because I have seen worse, but not by much.

Darkroom

[a_baron · 2/10 · 22 January 2015]

A young woman kills three people in a car accident, apparently after drinking too much alcohol. She is injured quite badly herself, including no doubt psychologically.

A crime of this nature warrants punishment, but someone is intent on seeing she is not simply punished but tortured, psychologically and physically. She is lured to an out of the way mansion on the pretext of a modelling assignment, but once there she is held captive and subjected to nightmarish treatment by a trio of religious fanatics, well, a duo and the weak member of this perverted family.

She is not the only one, two other girls are murdered. This film is disjointed, with flashbacks to the accident, but has no real plot except sadism for its own sake.

Manipulative script and horrid acting define this weak slasher film.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 14 November 2013]

Michelle was in an accident. This damages all her attempts at drug rehabilitation. To get out of the program, she needs to get Rachel's approval. She's lost her school aid due to the court orders, and her job prospects are dim. Rachel gives her an assignment, which is at a huge, for-sale house doing modeling. Amazing. Why would anyone give so much help to this loser-with-repellent-attitude? She's not attractive, she has a bad smoker's rasp, and various wounds on her body. Model? Seriously?

Rachel tries to get her to own up to her part in the driving accident in a group therapy session. This is more or less at the heart of the film. Michelle does not want to accept responsibility. She was driving, the three people with her were killed, but somehow it was not her fault.

So many flashbacks, so many irritations. This story is short, and should be told linearly.

At the photo shoot, she gets a costume for the gig, and directions to the first filming location. But no one is there.

By this time, I'm rooting for Michelle to get a one-way ticket out of the movie. She adds little, but is repellent and irritating.

At one point, her captors put some food under the door of her holding cell. Rather than eating for strength, the pouting idiot throws the food against the door. This harms her foes not one bit, but does mess up her already nasty cell. Hours later, a slight lesson is learned, and she cooperates a bit for food.

Of course, cooperation does not do her any good in the end. Her captors are siblings whose obsessions make them play out the nightmares of their youth with their abusive mother. Michelle is only a side prop.

Will she get out alive? Let's hope not. The thought of a sequel is scarier than the entire movie.

------Scores--------

Cinematography: 8/10 Not too bad; some weak light and soft focus, though.

Sound: 2/10 Had to listen to Michelle's terrible voice. Incidental music was not a plus during the movie itself.

Acting: 1/10 I like Elisabeth Roehm, and was sorry to see her in this mess. Even so, this was not one of her better performances. Kaylee DeFer, on the other hand, was simply terrible. Christian Campbell was wretched. Tobias Segal was worthless.

Screenplay: 1/10 Why do I have to listen to this ugly woman's ugly voice? A woman with neutral looks and a routine sort of voice (just about anyone) would have drawn more sympathy, which would have given the film more depth. But no, this harsh, useless, foul-mouthed, unrepentant, murdering scumbag is what everyone has to experience. So the conclusion I get from this dubious casting is that the director wanted the audience to hate the protagonist from the get-go, and greet whatever is done to her with glee. The back story of the siblings was convenient as well. So, let the slashing begin. The ending was incredibly weak.

Actually I was pleasantly surprised.

[petarmatic · 6/10 · 25 March 2014]

I did not expect a lot from this film, but I received more then I expected. Actually I was pleasantly surprised.

For this type of film it is really very well done film.

Plot is interesting, I mean I expected from a horror film to be a horror film and it delivered. There was a lot of blood and that type of stuff. Good old horror stuff! Cinemtaography was surprisingly good, and acting was rather good for those young actors I did not hear from before.

All in all if you like horror films this is a film for you, I mean I saw so many bad horror films, this one is not that bad, so you probably will not waste time by watching it.

interesting idea, decent cast and good cinematography wasted here

[dswiftoc · 2/10 · 7 March 2014]

had decent expectations going into this one but was disappointed. The premise is interesting, and was sort of expecting a Saw vibe but yeah not here. The worst part is the main problems are things that could of easily been fixed before the camera started rolling. The script wasn't that great to begin with, good job from some of the actors to make the most of what they were working with. The decision working in flashbacks was a really bad one, and making the decision to provide no relatable or redeeming qualities for the main protagonist doesn't help. Everything just feels flat. The good - some of the actors showed some skills working with the limited material they were given. I wish they would of fleshed out the main protagonist more. The cinematography was actually really good for the most part, which makes the errors so much worse since they really could of had a much better film. The sound and effects were pretty good to. Really this film serves as a great example of why you should measure twice and cut once, because with better pre-production and better decision making this could of been a much better film.

Torture to Watch

[Uriah43 · 2/10 · 4 July 2014]

"Michelle" (Kaylee DeFer) is a young woman who was recently involved in a deadly car accident which killed three of her friends. As a result she is in therapy in order to come to terms with her emotional trauma. After finally being able to open up and talk about her traumatic experiences she manages to acquire a job working for a company called "Darkroom Incorporated" which operates out of an isolated mansion. Now, rather than detail any more of the plot and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that her new employers are keeping a very dark secret which she is totally unprepared for upon her arrival. Having said that, although this film had a couple of surprising scenes I can't say that I actually enjoyed the overall movie that much. Not only did I find the plot to be extremely crude and one-dimensional but I also thought that the talented cast was terribly wasted. Quite bluntly, it was torture to watch and I cannot think of any reason to recommend this movie to anyone. Definitely below average.

It's OK

[capelladewdrop · 4/10 · 23 July 2015]

This movie takes a long time to get going to the good stuff and as its only about 70 minutes long in total it could easily be made into a TV show.

As for "the good stuff" it's nothing I haven't seen before in a lot of other horror movies. Religious nuts torturing girls private parts and forcing them to "repent".

If you're a fan of torture porn I'd say go for it watch this movie. The thing that is most disturbing and not in a good way is it shows kids being tortured. I personally think kids shouldn't be in a movie of this caliber.

WHO'S THE DIRTY GIRL? YOU KNOW THE DRILL.

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 20 April 2019]

Michelle (Kaylee DeFer) was the impaired driver of a car that killed three people. She is at a rehab hospital run by Rachel (Elisabeth Röhm). Michelle wants to move on with her life, while Rachel believes she needs to deal with her issues and purge her sins. Rachel sets Michelle up with a job at the "Darkroom" run by Larry (Christian Campbell) who we later find out is her son. As it turns out Michelle gets imprisoned in a room with a breakable wooden chair, pictures of herself in a bra, and an analog TV with bad home movies. As we all know, psychotic Christians like to use power tools to cleanse people of their sins. Spare the power drill, spoil the child.

The film is light on originality and decent dialog. "Who's a naughty girl?" is a question you ask during a playful spanking, not an amateur appendix operation. Much of the film is told with flashbacks. If you are waiting for "Hostel 4" or "Saw 7" you might want an appetizer.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex. Brief nudity (Kaylee DeFer) Torture.

Sometimes there is no light

[kosmasp · 2/10 · 11 May 2014]

They say where there are shadows there is also light. Unfortunately in the Dark Room, you only get the Dark. In this case it does stand for bad. Maybe the only "shining" moment of the script, could be the time line(s) the movie tries to establish. But even that isn't really that well thought and executed.

The acting is below average, but the script does not help either. Having a predictable story with cardboard characters, with no real threads, a lead that is supposed to have some "trauma", she is trying to escape (metaphorical escape combined with a physical one), might sound somewhat intriguing in script form, but the finalized product is not worth your time. Even "torture" movie "fans" have a lot better quality movies to choose from

Garbage!

[ikeybabe · 2/10 · 4 May 2014]

This was bad, really bad. I expected this movie to be at least decent since Elisabeth Rohm was in it. (Boy, has her career sunk to a new low). This was garbage. It just didn't make any sense. The acting was bad, the script was rancid and the gore wasn't even close to chilling. I just wondered why is the protagonist *SPOILER ALERT* watching the killers' home videos instead of escaping? Why didn't she get that bat that was sticking out of the bin? And there was no real reason behind the weird "dirty girl" accusations and why the killers were killers. I can see a single person being an insane maniac, but three?! And, the modeling scheme really? That just doesn't work any more. Stupid, insipid and a waste of energy. The only reason I gave this film 2 stars is because, believe it or not, I have seen worst.

Negative rate if possible

[africe · 1/10 · 9 June 2019]

This was horrible. Why can't someone come up with a horror movie without total idiots. Seriously, are people really this stupid???