From a Place of Darkness

USA 2008
produced by
Douglas A. Raine, Phyllis Boyd, Jeffrey Chernov, Catherine Conklin, Philippe Du Puy (executive), Stephen Lim (executive), David Markman (executive) for Vic's Flicks, 110 in the Shade Productions, PDP Productions
directed by Douglas A.Raine
starring Travis Schuldt, John Savage, Bronson Pinchot, Valery M. Ortiz, Conor Duffy, Natalie Zea, Carmen Palumbo, Carmen Mormino, Jeffrey T.Unterkofler, Cristen Irene, Nikki Flux, Elina Madison, Eric Michael Kochmer, Christopher Allen, Jennifer Pfalzgraff, Catherine Quatschnigg, Aimee Muschamp
written by Scott Kenyon Barker, Douglas A. Raine, music by Enrique 'Hank' C. Feldman, Sdrjan Kurpjel, Drew Martinez, Jamie Mitchell, special effects by Matt Kutcher, special makeup effects by Michael Peterson, visual effects by Aaron Peak

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Miles (Travis Schuldt) is filming a documentary on snuff film producer Vic (John Savage), but the more he learns about the topic, the more infatuated he becomes by Vic, and after he has interviewed him, he even agrees to share a warehouse with Vic - where both men do their stuff, Miles making his documentary, Vic killing people on camera. After a while though, Miles starts seeing the ghosts of Vic's victims on film, which he finds more and more disturbing.

Eventually, Miles' girlfriend Brenda (Natalie Zea), his borther Sean (Conor Duffy), Sean's wife Rosa (Valerie M.Ortiz) and possible investor Carl (Bronson Pinchot) all come to the warehouse looking for Miles, who has started to behave weirdly lately, and more and more they become obsessed by Vic, who now turns out to be not a real man at allbut a ghost, and the slaughter starts, ultimately only leaving Miles and Rosa, who managed to resist Vic's mindgames, alive. Ghost Vic escapes though ...

Two months later: Miles and Rosa managed to track down Vic the ghost to his new hideout, and they think they are able to fight him as they both can resist his power ... but ultimately, Vic manages to play them against one another, and they kill each other without even managing to harm Vic ...

Starting out as a rather serious movie about snuff-films, this one quickly loses momentum when the whole ghost-subplot is thrown into the mix, and as quickly as the plot becomes a little ridiculous, it also becomes incomprehensible until in the end it totally loses itself within its mostly unnecessary plottwists. As for Douglas A.Raine's directorial effort, he certainly enough knows how to set up scenes, but ever so often, his moody direction gives way to flashy editing and camera movements that migh seem fit for a music video but certainly not for a horror movie that's supposed to rely on atmosphere.

Having said that, From a Place of Darkness is not all bad, it certainly has its moments - but a handful of moments unfortunately don't make a feature film.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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