From the Dark

There could have been a damn good horror film in here somewhere, with a simple setup and premise, a mundane setting turned horrific and a creepy monster. While low budget, it makes decent use of this limitation and actually looks good for the most part. The inherent problem with this movie is that the main characters are unlikable. From the moment they appear, they are bickering annoyances consistent in their behavioral stupidity. So when they find themselves under siege and tortured by a vampire, I found myself more supportive of the vampire. Speaking of which, it's nice to see a horrific vampire again. No tweenage metaphors, no vampire-zombie hybrids (Vambies/Zompires?), just a nasty feral Nosferatu with a major light aversion. Unfortunately as a result, the movie is dark to the point of obscurity, blurry and undefined, and confusingly edited. Too much reliance on genre tropes (car stuck in the mud, jump scares, no cell reception, lightsaber flashlights, idiot ball plot, etc) and with moments that are unintentionally funny, ((the first attack is the same as the first attack in Jaws, but in a mud puddle about waist high)). There is some actual horror in the middle, but it's too much of a slog to get to. If you're a vampire fan you might want to take a look, but other than that I can't really recommend.

D+