Dark Reel
Dark Reel
| 01 January 2008 (USA)
Dark Reel Trailers

Murder, mystery and mayhem as B movie fan, Adam Waltz, wins Walk on Role in a film Featuring Scream Queen, Cassie Blue (Tiffany Shepis). Thinking his luck had changed for the better he steps into chaos with a killer loose and no one on the production safe.

Reviews
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Jayden-Lee Thomson One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
ladymidath I know Dark Reel has been getting some negative reviews but I think some of them are a little harsh. I know it has it's faults but it is still a solid film that does give some nice scenes and good acting. Edward Furlong plays Adam Waltz, a horror movie buff who has been dumped by his girlfriend who he followed from Virginia to Los Angeles. He wins a contest, the prize being a walk-on role in Pirate Wench, a schlocky movie being made by Connor Pritchett the head of the studio played by Lance Henriksen. Things become complicated by several murders on set which throws the film into disarray and soon Adam's role become larger and larger as the cast becomes smaller.Tony Todd as Detective Shields and his partner, Detective LaRule played by Rena Riffel are both good in their roles, but it is Lance Henriksen who really carries it. Tiffany Shepis as the lead actress, Cassie Blue is great. She shows some real personality in a role that could easily have become just another paycheck part. Edward Furlong is likable but could have been a little stronger in the role of a horror movie fan who finds himself in a real-life horror movie complete with ghosts and murders galore.Alexandra Holden as Scarlett May, the 1950's actress that is murdered at the very beginning of the movie and who comes back via her image on film stock is quite good.Jeffrey Vincent Parise as Derek Deeds the rude director and Jake Grace as the onion eating lead actor Rhett Johnson are a lot of fun to watch.Emmanuel Xuereb as Harris Briggs, the head of the creative department is very good and rather overshadows Edward Furlong.The film is not without its faults. I liked the musical score and the premise of the story, a murdered actress comes back to try and warn Adam about the murders that are being committed. The Opening scenes with Scarlett May being dismembered in front of the movie cameras is also one of the best opening scenes in any horror movie. But the movie drags a little and at times, the characters could be annoying. Still not a bad film if you have nothing else to do.
NateWatchesCoolMovies Dark Reel is severely damaged goods no matter how you look at it. It sucks because there's some good ideas trying their best to flourish beneath a mountain of sludge, but nothing of any value can breech the surface of this purely shitty B movie with scant traces of a decent outing. It starts off with a black and white prologue that looks like the only part of the film that wasn't shot with an etch-a-sketch. Scarlett, a young aspiring actress, is lured into a dark abandoned set warehouse under the pretence of an audition, and brutally murdered. Fast forward about six decades, where a young groupie (Edward Furlong, looking like a sack of poo warmed over) wins a walk on role in a sickeningly trashy B movie monstrosity, starring a legendary scream queen (Tiffany Shepis, also a legendary scream queen in real life). It's not long before so,done with ties to the murder in the prologue starts skulking around the set after hours and hacking people to pieces in ways that are as tasteless as they are cheap looking. The film has one redeeming quality, if you are a fan: Lance Henriksen. He plays Connor Pritchett, schlock movie producer and general whacko. Lance seriously plays the part like he has no idea what the script is, making up verbal diarrhea on the fly, undergoing titanic mood swings and displaying the coherency of someone with serious issues. It's fun to watch him crash and burn, and even in the most awful poop material like this, he still shines, as bats@$t crazy as he is. There's also a cop played by Tony Todd who acts just as unstable as Lance, and Todd rides the wave of his awfully written dialogue and poor direction like a sheepish pro. This is literally one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and the funny thing is that it didn't have to be. The premise itself is great, and even on the couch change budget it was stuck with, they could have at least tried. But no, they threw in the bloody towel and instead of a gem or even an admirable failure we get this monumental piece of festering garbage instead. I had to keep myself occupied in any scenes without Henriksen by hitting half speed fast forward so the characters sound like chipmunks. It says a lot about a flick when you have to do that. Avoid at any cost.
Mat_Hadder The plot: Furlong is a fat drunk that lives on a futon in LA. He apparently has no job and likes watching terrible horror movies. He is also creepy because he followed his girlfriend from Georgia or somewhere that has fake accents. At the beginning Furlong tries, but sounds like he's doing an Australian accent and then just drops it.Lucky for him, he wins a contest and gets to be an extra in a horror movie (but it's a pirate movie?). When he meets the actors, they're all stuck up bitches except for the most famous one who falls in love with his doughy belly, jaundiced eyes, and puffy black sandbags that float under his eyes on that big chubby cheeked face of his. At one point they go swimming together, but he won't take of his shirt because he has D-cup man-boobs. They then have sex and are in love. All the while everyone on the film is getting murdered and there are two cops (candyman and apparently a former prostitute) in all of LA that can handle the case. Eventually nothing makes sense and Furlong is dark and mysterious and sexy and I totally bought the hot chicks interest in him. There's one good actor in the movie. He's an old guy and probably thought this was a serious film. He must be retarded because his dialog was apparently written by Christopher Reeves, after the accident.I imagine this is how the script went.Scene: Old man and candyman discuss the depths of man's soul while smoking Kools. Fat drunk actor meanwhile see's a dead women in the dailys. Hot chick loves fat drunk actor because he doesn't believe in showers or sleep. Ghost makes old man shoot himself in the head but the movie just will not end. Fat drunk actor who has sex with hot chick after being cast as an extra is suddenly a famous movies star and at the screening totally pisses of his ex-girlfriend and she makes a face like she farted and got poop got in her mouth. The curtain falls. Overall I give it a ten.
politehere I didn't even bother to watch the last 20 minutes. The movie is too boring to watch, not scary, and the plot is full of inconsistencies. Simply put, the whole plot is tasteless.The characters act badly. The music score is bad. The killer looks totally ridiculous to say the least and the way she murders her victims is lame and awful. I don't even see the point of watching this totally unwatchable movie unless you want to get bored to death. And yes, I'm a true horror fan, but come on......Why don't they put this into the comedy category rather than passing it as a horror film?Avoid this title if you can.