Gary Irwin: Director
Review: Of Darkness
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Of Darkness
Director: Gary E. Irwin
Release: 2006
Director Gary E. Irwin and writer Matt Casale single-handedly reiterate that computers and makeup do not a good horror-film make. They, in fact, take the genre back to its essential and still-effective roots: fear of the dark.
"Of Darkness" opens in the basement. Thats where brothers Brian and Jeff Chaisson (Frank Nardi and Dallas Scott) haul the trunk containing their grandfathers personal effects. In the process, the trunk comes open and a particularly nasty old tome falls out with his stuff. Granddad, it seems, was a Devil-worshipper.
The Chaisson brothers apparently live without parental supervision. Jeff stays home while Brian heads out to party. In no time, the house is filled with pre-teen Jeffs friends and the irresistible pull of the eerie book in the basement takes over. In more ways than one.
Jeff and friends are subject, over the next half hour, to a horrific invading darkness. The lights sputter, seethe, fade and then wink out in one room after another. With the darkness comes something else. Those trapped in a room without light are never seen again. When Jeff returns home the next morning, he finds the aftermath of something very violent in the silent, dripping interior.
There is literally nothing to see in "Of Darkness." The kids nightmare is panicked, convincingly acted by a crew of child talent acting purely to lightless rooms. Not since Steven Spielbergs "E.T." has a cast of kids been so convincingly employed. Theyre not always dead-on in their lines, but their basic integration is authentic. They convince as friends. Even when one of the kids could mug during a teasing scene, the actor withholds. Its a pleasure to watch them work.
The film augmented by some stunning theatrical lighting and sound editing. The house lights visibly breathe, pulsing and fading with the coming satanic threat. The one on-screen effect not controlled by electricity is of a single bulb, something swirling inside and then flooded with blackness. Its a simple but chilling visual.
Daniel Watchulonis camera plays these rooms with meticulous care, establishing a solid understanding of how the Chaisson house is laid out (crucial to the reductionism of the script in which the options of where to run are steadily eliminated). Once were sure its a real place, with a real geography, Watchulonis shows us what he can do, including a marvelous tracking shot that takes us from a connecting doorway between kitchen and living room, across a wall and to the top of the basement stairs. Simple, not showy, but in that moment convinces the audience that we are actually in a real house, not a stage set.
Every little detail counts for huge impact, from streetlights and the lawn lanterns shutting off one-by-one, to the final scene of Jeff clinging to a plastic electric candle in the window, his cries for Brian muted by the glass. Subtle makeup changes dramatically transform Adam Montgomerys Charlie, the youngest of the group and the one most sinisterly influenced by the book.
"Of Darkness" is a thrilling ride. Its slightly hokey in a wide-eyed way. The human-skin-covered volume is just a little silly, but Irwins talented cast plays it straight and keeps the whats-out-there freak-out level so controlled and convincing that its easy (and it pays off) to submit to the ride.
Irwin and Casale hamstring themselves ever-so-slightly with the kicker ending, but in an end-of-the-"The-Howling" manner not a cheap gag, but a little wink. The film would have ended better on the photo of Jeff, it would have ended on a tremendous down-note. Instead it ends with a hint of apocalypse a sort of grade-school supernatural Columbine. The emotional payoff of the former would have sealed the short with an art-house gesture. The latter leaves us with a muscular genre piece, a quasi-Lovecraftian romp.
James OBrien
Cinescare Staff
Of Darkness, 2006
Subtle makeup changes dramatically transform Adam Montgomerys Charlie, the youngest of the group and the one most sinisterly influenced by the book.
