Steven Monroe goes for the jugular with an old school approach to straight-laced horror with Left in Darkness, using the ol’ standby of the battle between good and evil as his crux. Ironically, the two predominant aspects of the film are similarly juxtaposed in this regard as the relentless suspense and tension that Monroe fashions and sustains is counterbalanced by Monica Keena’s clichéd character of the dumb blonde caught in a horror film. However, by the climax of the seemingly throwaway, yet enjoyable, escapist flick, one interesting concept barrels forward, making Left in Darkness an entertaining and surprising feature from a burgeoning horror director.
Rachel (Tarah Paige) takes Celia (Monica Keena) to a frat party for the latter’s 21st birthday. Once there, Celia meets Doug (Chris Engen), who puts knockout drops in her beer and proceeds to rape her. However, she overdoes only to awaken to find mysterious shape shifting creatures who have possession of her memory, hunting her in hopes of obtaining her soul before Donovan (David Anders), her guardian angel, appears as he attempts to deliver her from limbo before time runs out.
People often speak of how, from the opening frame, James Cameron’s Aliens takes off and never looks back. The key to the tension in the extraterrestrial classic is that the director didn’t preoccupy himself with making a horror film, but–first and foremost–telling an interesting tale. This isn’t to imply that Monroe’s work holds a light to Cameron’s roller coaster of a film, but I found myself fascinated, reminiscing once the final credits started rolling, of past features which likewise refused to stop and take a breath. With this in mind, once Monroe kills off his main character, the viewer would be well advised to hold on because he refuses to take his foot off of the directorial accelerator until everything’s said and done.
Yet, as much of a taut, suspenseful thrill ride that Left in Darkness may be, it does suffer from one very damaging component in particular: the characterization of its lead, Celia. As much as Monroe accessed and effectively used the old school techniques of creating a horror narrative, in so doing he unfortunately pulls out one of the worst clichés within the horror bag: the dumb blonde (perhaps it isn’t coincidental that Keena is a Brittany Murphy look- and act-alike) who, even though she has a guided hand leading the way, nonetheless fails to do what the most mentally-defunct poodle would innately act upon. More specifically, though well veiled due to masterful editing and scoring, the plot is forced at times in that Celia’s inanity and obstinacy permits the film to run almost an hour-and-a-half when, sans the character’s stupidity, its final edit probably wouldn’t make feature-length. Of course, Shakespeare’s masterpiece would have had trouble after the first act if Hamlet would have been able to commit. What results from this novice, genre sin in characterization is, quite simply, annoyance as the viewer begins to huff and survey his or her immediate surroundings for anything within reach to throw at the screen in hopes of getting through Celia’s thick head that yes, she is dead and no, she can’t do anything about it.
However, just as the film was coming to a close and I was contenting myself with having been graced with an entertaining, escapist piece of horror which, though trite but nonetheless well done with several effective boo moments to its credit atop establishing and abiding by its own intriguing set of metaphysical laws and ramifications (which, like Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others, takes the plot of Tim Burton’s Beetle Juice and approaches it seriously), a plot catch is created. Suddenly, I found myself sitting up as one character, who left another’s soul to perish without a second thought, is forced to save the abandoned in order to achieve redemption. Considering the premise of Left in Darkness revolves around the battle between good and evil, my face lit up as I was granted with yet another concept which mainstream cinema cannot afford itself: The theory that most, if not all, whom seek salvation do so ever-so-paradoxically out of self-interest in order to escape eternal damnation.
Steven Monroe’s Left in Darkness is a welcome return to true horror as he not only gives us an old school fright flick, he ups the ante by positing a very challenging and risqué idea which, like a seasoned pro, he brings to a slow boil instead of jumping the gun. Even though his main character is a cardboard cut-out of the most horrific (excuse the pun), clichéd nature, the steadfast vision which the director affords us while nonetheless entertaining us, makes Left in Darkness a promising note of potential.
-Egregious Gurnow
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
