Dark Island

Dark Island

When you begin to unpack a box and discover that you previously purchased an obscure Thai import DVD which is a low budget b-grade horror film still unreleased in the states, it is a pretty clear sign that you need to shift some of your focus to organizing the movies in your collection. So how does something like this slip your mind? Therefore, I thought it would be a good place to bring out my o.s.t. dvd cover of Dark Island. It was after the credits that I understood that I was right the first time when I chose to just bury the film in my drawers.

We experience flashbacks showing us the events in particular people’s lives on the mainland before they came to this island and specify the reasons why these people will take some of the actions they do on the island.

Dark Island does not even try to disguise itself as a show similar to Lost. The characters have actually been sent to the island with the purpose of locating a lost research team for a big corporation. The island is not magical, the black smoke is nothing but the result of an experimenting gone bad, and no one is left on the island waiting for the rest of the time most probably in heaven. The script also takes some notes from Resident Evil movies as well.

Having said that, when you consider the overall aesthetic of the film, if you were to give someone Dark Island and claim it to be a five year old Asylum Production’s handout cum bad parodic movie of Lost, I seriously don’t think anyone would dispute you.

On the bright side, Dark Island’s producers have put in something that the producers of “Lost” conveniently forgot, which will for some reason always bring a smile to my face: gas guns. I would be the first to admit that I am a fan of gun gas in movies, don’t ask me to explain how I got this kiddy like joy, I just do Don’t ask me to explain why I get a kick out of seeing guns that fire gas in action; I just do. I guess the best sequence of the movie is when a man fights off a rushing smoke monster with a gas rifle. It’s a cool action sequence. It is really sad though that this moment only lasts for a couple of seconds in the 80 minutes most of the viewers spent bored out of their minds.

Believe it or not but Dark Island is a dull movie. It is really boring. The characters are bores, and the poor actors that play them all act like wood. There is a plot but it is a bunch of boring clichés that I can barely be bothered to dissect. Some characters aren’t who they say that they are, other people have other aims and the whole twisting part would be more interesting only if the rest of the story wasn’t such a train wreck.

It felt more like a circus that was running 3 hours late. Every time the opening credits rolled, I felt like I wanted to use the fast forwarding feature. On top of the boat ride which is exactly 4 solid minutes away, there was an absence of any speech or activity that lasted for what felt like 3 times as long. Multiple times, I felt as though I had very little opportunity to move as slowly as a fourteen hour session.

It is unfortunate because regardless of stealing content from “lost”, the scene with the smoke monster is bound to be amazing as it pursues its victims before engulfing them in an instant. If only it was present on screen for longer periods of time. Painting the characters sickly, drenching them in a black substance, and turning contact lenses dark wasn’t the most original idea either. I found the make up absolutely alright, I just prefer seeing smoke monsters go on rampage instead.

For more movies Visit Gomovies.