Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Darkness Reigns'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Our dreams are quite the powerful motivator. They help us get up in the morning and deal with the hassles of another day because we firmly believe that someday, our dreams will come true and we’ll have that perfect career and the happiness that comes along with it. But, what is sometimes often forgotten when it comes to the wonder of the dream, is that nothing will ever quite fall into our laps in this life, and we have to work extremely hard and sacrifice plenty in order to make our dreams come true.
 
But for some, hard work seems like quite the waste of time. They have no desire to put their nose to the proverbial grindstone and find fulfillment in life through blood, sweat and tears, they want all the accolades that come with success with minimal fuss and they take every shortcut imaginable to get what they want, often times with disastrous results. But while failure is often a great motivator to get these people to either work hard or move on, some will become jaded and stilted from their failure, and push even harder to get what they want, and these are the people to avoid since they do anything and everything to be number one, regardless of who they step on and hurt and that particular notion is explored in extreme fashion in the horror film, Darkness Reigns.
 
Now in this particular tale, we are introduced to a director named Daniel who…isn’t exactly satisfied with how his career in filmmaking has turned out. Sure, he’s getting by, but not being at the helm of a revolutionary motion picture irks him to no end and his latest gig; shooting a behind the scenes documentary for a horror film entitled Defanatus Soul, only adds insult to injury. But, Daniel is going to be in for quite the surprise when it comes to this job. Because the creepy place where this movie is being filmed is legitimately haunted and he is about to get some incredibly terrifying footage that will change his life in more ways than one, since providing the world with definitive proof that there is life after death, will cost Daniel more than he could ever imagine…

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​Truth be told, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I settled in to watch this film, simply because I’ve come to find that found footage movies tend to be either a dud, or something derivative since they often try to replicate the success and wonder of The Blair Witch Project. But this movie, well it turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise, because it actually had something new to offer at just about every single turn. There’s a solid story here, one that is filled with some serious twists and turns that I flat out didn’t see coming and all of that is further enhanced by the fact that this film has some genuinely disturbing moments to offer up.
 
In fact, some of the scares in this one genuinely took me off guard and gave me pause thanks to how disturbing they turned out to be because haunting stories tend to use jump scares and shadows in the dark to rattle their audience. But this one, well it injected a healthy dose of gore and psychological twists to mess with you and that definitely separated it from the pack and made for an enjoyable and twisted experience, and honesty, I also loved the tribute this film paid to The Shining as well, since it handled every last one of those moments in respectful and fun fashion. 
 
In the end however, what I truly enjoyed about this film the most, is how it manages to manipulate the audience. Because at first, the story doesn’t take itself seriously, and for proof, look no further than the meta, fourth wall moments with Casper Van Dien. But once the spirit comes to life, all bets are off and we get down to some serious scares and honestly, I really had blast watching this film, and I truly loved that twist ending and if you’re in the market for an entertaining and twisted horror flick, one that just focuses on the scares, then this is the one for you.    

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