Left In Darkness Year: 2005 Director: Steven R. Monroe Written by: Philip Daay, Jane Whitney Threat: Devil Weapon of Choice: Roofied Drink Based upon: none Color/B&W/3D: Colour Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page:

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Rish's Reviews
Stephen J. Cannell's production company, right around the time they obtained Anchor Bay Entertainment, has discovered just how much money is to be made by cheap, direct-to-video Horror. Left In Darkness is one of many of their 2006 releases, but may be the first one we've actually watched for the site.
Here's hoping it's not all downhill from here.
The positive: There was definitely some creativity behind the idea here, with an interesting universe and unique, set rules. It had a well-developed back story, among the best use of a ouija board I've seen in a movie, and a couple of clever uses of mirrors. I like the title. And I liked David Anders on "Alias."
The negative: the movie is an absolute train wreck. Motivations appear, then disappear, contradictions abound, and the disjointed narrative starts in one direction, only to meander and seemingly forgetting where it was going, backtrack on itself. There was awful MTV-style editing, which was supposed to cause confusion, just like the swirling, obliquely baffling storyline, but really only caused nausea. A great deal of the film was neither scary nor moving, but ended up as nothing more than stupid.
I'll let tyranist rant about how slow on the uptake the poor heroine is, but wow, it just isn't Monica Keena's day. But dude, she is drugged, gang-raped, left to die alone in a frat house bathroom, attacked, betrayed, chased around by demonic versions of her loved ones, and faced with the chance/possibility of going to Hell, all on her twenty-first birthday, I can't blame her for being a LITTLE spacy.
The subject matter is very bleak, really. I mean, the poor girl is revealed to be an orphan and a sad-sack, then is given a roofied drink and wakes up raped and dead. Then, when she later gets the chance to confront her assailant, she tries to help him out. A better person than I'd be, despite the multiple tattoos the actress sported.
I can appreciate what they were going for here, really. I'll bet there was a good treatment or synopsis or one paragraph pitch that inspired this, and somehow eroded into Left In Darkness. Though Monica Keena is not my favorite little actress (poor girl's lips look beestung in this), and Tim Thomerson was great as Jack Deth (world's toughest grandpa), the film sucks enough to make them both look bad in this one.
The ending is absolutely horrible. We (the audience) figure the film is over, having been given a happy ending (which, she cheated to get, but hey, I'm not quibbling), and then there comes a some kind of cryptic, vaguely threatening coda, at the end of which is revealed that our girl has somehow become a devil herself. Right?
And if that was NOT the intention of the filmmakers, then they are even worse at their job than I gave them credit for.
Best Scare: Tim Thomerson's monster makeup was pretty good.
I'd Recommend It To: Honestly, I can't not recommend this to you, if you want to see it. It was certainly entertaining, but surely not in the way the filmmakers intended.
Posted: November 14, 2006

Total Skulls: 30

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?