An urban vampire tale set it a middle class, Los Angeles neighborhood, this movie is a low budget gem. It starts off slow and a little unsure of its tone, but once the vampire antics begin we get one unpredictable set piece after another; the movie soars.
Director, Desi Scarpone, knows how to stage this stuff. Once he gets all the main characters in the house, the movie slips into a truly compelling visual style that perfectly blends action and environment. He stages shots that often comment on themselves with key actions happening in both the foreground and back ground; what we see is outrageous, but how we see makes it real. This middle class neighborhood where a majority of the action takes place, remains perfectly ordinary, even with extraordinary blood drinking and flesh eating going on in it. The level of parody here is high, but like Polanski's FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, scary and funny constantly intersect. Visually, the movie creates a low rent kind of poetry; there's meaning in all this if you want it.
What really impressed me is how the story sets up certain expectations and then cleverly subverts them. Once all hell breaks loose there's no telling what will happen next. Most low budget horror directors concentrate on gore. We have plenty of that here (some of it rather well done, too), but, interestingly enough, we also get characters that, for the most part, develop. The acting remains uneven, to say the least, but again, Scarpone serves his cast well with staging that works when performances won't carry.
I really loved this movie. A complete surprise, for sure. If you are a horror fan, rent it; the first ten minutes or so do not inspire confidence, but give it a chance. Once the blood starts flowing, DARK TOWN lights up the sky.
Director, Desi Scarpone, knows how to stage this stuff. Once he gets all the main characters in the house, the movie slips into a truly compelling visual style that perfectly blends action and environment. He stages shots that often comment on themselves with key actions happening in both the foreground and back ground; what we see is outrageous, but how we see makes it real. This middle class neighborhood where a majority of the action takes place, remains perfectly ordinary, even with extraordinary blood drinking and flesh eating going on in it. The level of parody here is high, but like Polanski's FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, scary and funny constantly intersect. Visually, the movie creates a low rent kind of poetry; there's meaning in all this if you want it.
What really impressed me is how the story sets up certain expectations and then cleverly subverts them. Once all hell breaks loose there's no telling what will happen next. Most low budget horror directors concentrate on gore. We have plenty of that here (some of it rather well done, too), but, interestingly enough, we also get characters that, for the most part, develop. The acting remains uneven, to say the least, but again, Scarpone serves his cast well with staging that works when performances won't carry.
I really loved this movie. A complete surprise, for sure. If you are a horror fan, rent it; the first ten minutes or so do not inspire confidence, but give it a chance. Once the blood starts flowing, DARK TOWN lights up the sky.