A Darker Reality (2008)

So much average

People are voting emotionally.

A Masterpiece!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A cop is investigating crimes by a serial killer. A woman somehow escaped the killer's clutches and is in the hospital. There the cop runs into an attractive psychiatrist looking into the case. But as usual, he's got to be a jerk about working with someone else. She warns him that the girl is too traumatized and won't talk to some tough cop. And she's right. The girl opens up to her and we see the things the killer makes the girls he kidnaps go through. And it's pretty nasty stuff.We also learn about the killer. He's got a slow brother that helps out. He gives long speeches to the victims and all this came about by how he was treated by his mother. The focus now shifts entirely to the girls in the basement, and how they gather strength and are able to do something about their situation. But from the escaped girl, we learn something else. We learn that the killer has a next victim in mind.A Darker Reality surprised me. I wasn't expecting much. It has a 90s B movie look and feel to it. But it does have the courage to take psychological terror to a new level and it's pretty uncompromising about it.

Some movies are just down right disturbing. The imagery is so dark it sticks with you and not easily forgotten. This is one of those movies. Daniel Baldwin does a decent job playing the sadistic killer. The only reason I didn't give this movie higher marks was the acting by the cop and forensics lady, everyone else's acting was pretty good. It's odd to just have a couple of bad actors…either they are all good or all bad. Anyway, these two were bad enough to stick out.The story itself, a sick killer who kidnaps, tortures and kills woman isn't as clichéd as it sounds. The imagery and torture is very intimate, in some scenes it felt as if your right there in the same room. Not many movies can boast such a quality.If you got a strong stomach and can handle torture movies, I recommend this one!

I'm hesitant watching movies featuring other members of the Baldwin family not naked Alec. Sorry guys, but there have been quite a few clunkers along the way, you know? So, I was skeptical going into this and pleasantly surprised with the performance submitted by Daniel Baldwin as the villain. (No spoiler, it's revealed early in the film.) (As another reviewer mentioned, the cop scenes are trite. For worse, stilted cop scenes, see the movie THE WICKED.) From reading the other reviews, I'm guessing the point of the movie was focusing on the trauma being experienced by the victims, experiencing their horror. That's probably half the film and if I consider my viewing through that lens, then I still can't up my score. The female actors did a good job, but it still felt over-the-top too often.While the film attempts giving motivation to "The Ghost," his methods feel haphazard. SAW had motivation and over-the-top style to the killings. HOSTEL did the same. Heck, even Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE or THE HILLS HAVE EYES had the killing room better thought out. Or, maybe I watch too much DEXTER.

The SAW franchise had a lot of brilliance to it including a great storyline for the most part. However, it also spawned a myriad of copycat films that have to keep pushing the envelope further and further so that they aren't even your typical horror film but something in a different genre altogether. There is grotesque, and horrific and then there is just too much gore especially when you're aiming for realism. One of the things that made films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre so popular was the fact that it used imagination to further the horror. You didn't see limbs and body parts being hacked off or people being literally tortured in front of you, it left it up to the viewer to imagine what was happening. Sometimes you just don't need to see the torture. A Darker Reality is exactly that...horrific torture...a weak story and just gory murder after murder. The description of the film says its about the girls finally rising up and fighting against the killer but for the four minutes that happens its unsuccessful and the killer just chops them up before they get away. Stupid, trivial, grotesque and hard to watch.The only reason I score this slightly higher than a big fat zero is the performances in the film aren't a complete waste. Daniel Baldwin actually plays the twisted, psychopath pretty well. He is deeply disturbed, twisted, and actually carries the film pretty darn well considering. He might be the only reason I didn't just turn it off in the first fifteen minutes. Sunny Doench and James C. Burns are practically useless as the two cops chasing down the killer. The story is barely on them and there is no great chase or mystery unravelled. I think they are put into the story because it would seem strange to not have someone trying to catch the killer...but they are truly useless. All the girls, the victims in the film do a great job of being terrified and tortured however unfortunate that claim to fame might be.Co-creator and director Chris Kazmier is heralded by some fans as being a 'dark and brilliant' horror creator but I think he uses violent images as an excuse to be entertaining. I am a huge horror fan, I love slasher flicks but horror is taking an unfortunate turn into this reality driven blood fest and that's unfortunate. Even if you are a fan of SAW this is just utter garbage. Its an hour and a half of girls being tortured which in my book is a snuff film not entertainment. Dump this one!! 2/10