Dark Remains
Directed by Brian Avenet-Bradley
Monarch Video

Being a horror fan for many years sometimes makes you have a thick skin. We usually just scoff when someone jumps during a horror movie. Yet there are still those diamonds in the rough that come along and scare the living daylights out of you. Dark Remains is one of the rare moments when a horror movie is thoroughly creepy and makes you feel that gut wrenching tension that drew you to the horror genre in the beginning. This is horror done right.

A couple's young daughter is mysteriously murdered while they sleep. Seeking solace the couple retreats to a cabin in the mountain. Allen is a writer and he seeks refuge in front of his laptop to help numb the pain while his wife Julie sinks into a depression. With her husbands urging she begins to start taking photographs again and what she finds in the pictures cause her to slowly spin out of control. In each photograph she takes in the cabin an apparition appears. Soon the spirits begin taking a more tangible form and these moments provide the scariest moments of the film. The ghosts squirm and writhe in front of the camera and produce some of the most gut wrenching noises you have ever heard.

Allen begins to notice his wife's crumbling mental state and begins to investigate the history of the cabin. This is where the story really begins to get interesting and the last half hour of the film really helps answer all of the questions you were probably thinking of during the first hour of the movie. This is a creepy and effective ghost story that takes elements of The Amityville Horror and The Grudge combining them into a film that is almost guaranteed to scare the shit right out of you.

One interesting aspect of the film that is left open is just who exactly murdered the couple's daughter. The police suspect that it may have been one of the parents but it remains a mystery throughout. I like the ambiguous nature of this aspect of the film because it allows the viewer to use their own imagination. Was it just a random murder or is there something a bit more sinister behind it?

Dark Remains may be a low budget film, but it certainly doesn't wear it like a badge of honor. This is a slick looking film with excellent editing and interesting camera angles giving the film a look and feel that far surpasses the budget. The makeup and effects are all very well done and while this isn't a bloody film the few gore effects are done quite well particularly the suicide scene in the bathtub.

Aside from the main feature the disc is packed with an impressive amount of bonus features. You have the directors commentary, deleted scenes, a behind the scenes segment, trailer and a small piece about a haunted prison. The feature is of course the main draw here but the extras are nice to watch after the film to dig deeper into how the film came together.

Armed with ample scares, an interesting story and some downright scary looking ghosts, Dark Remains is a horror film that really delivers. If you think that you are too hardened to be scared, think again.

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