Against the Dark (2009)

Really Surprised!

A Brilliant Conflict

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

AGAINST THE DARK is a Romanian-shot vampire movie set in a post-apocalyptic world where a group of survivors must band together to find off attacks from predatory vampires. With the exception of a handful of surrounding scenes, the entire film takes place in an abandoned hospital and mainly consists of characters wandering through dark corridors and fighting some dodgy villains.Shoehorned into this low budget mess is Steven Seagal, dubbed and doubled as usual, playing a vampire hunter who uses a samurai sword to dispatch the undead menace. As per usual these days, Seagal hardly appears in his own movie, and his fight scenes are largely disappointing: full of that dodgy, jolting editing that seeks (and fails) to hide the fact that Seagal was doubled for the most part.The vampires themselves are a mess (not literally), who act more like the infected in Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER. There's little gore here to speak of and the action scenes go by in a blur, and as for the plot, it's non-existent. The producers drafted in Linden Ashby and Keith David to play a couple of military types but their presence is entirely extraneous to the main narrative. Instead we get ex-HOLBY CITY actors giving terrible performances complete with terrible American accents and the whole thing's a complete waste of time.

While Steven Seagal Fans may get Shortchanged in this Horror Movie, Gore-Hounds can get Their Fill of Bloodletting and Entrail Gorging. Seagal Walks through most of the Movie Slowly Moving from one place to Another. He Confronts Mutants Occasionally and Quickly Dispenses of them with a Sword, a Kick, or a Gun, with His Dialog Virtually Non-Existent. But the Draw here is the Martial Arts Experts First Try at Genre Hopping. The Movie is Slightly Above Average for a DTV Movie and Contains Enough Exploitation for Low-Rent, Trashy Entertainment. Not the Worst in Seagal's Fat Period because it is a bit Different and the Make-Up Effects for the Mutants and Their Prey are Somewhat Impressive.Worth a Watch for Gore-Meisters, Zombie Cultists, Steven Seagal Completists, and Low-Budget Movie Maniacs.

A virus has wiped out most of the world's population. The virus turns its victims into blood thirsty zombies and is spread by fluid contact into a cut or wound. There is no cure. The military are trying to control the virus by destroying infected areas. A team of zombie hunters are conducting a sweep of a zombie infested hospital for survivors before the facility is bombed by the military.The movie was released direct to video and had a budget of $US7 million.The zombie hunters led by Steven Seagal are constrained by the virus, so there is minimal physical contact during the fighting and the predominant use of guns and a long (kitana) sword (although knives are also used).The film (horror genre) creates tension through use of dark lighting as the survivors make their way through the locked down hospital with the power threatening to fail, while under constant attack by the zombies. The hunters meanwhile are trying to find them. And the military are about to destroy the building.The script however is the biggest problem. There is inconsistency about those infected - are they zombies, mutants or vampires. Steven Seagal's fights are constrained to a sword and shot gun by the threat of the virus, and not the usual hand to hand combat, which is fair enough. However he appears to have attempted to reduce the visibility of his weight gain by wearing a full length leather coat. The survivors never pick up a club to defend themselves and have a habit of constantly getting separated from each other as a plot technique to create additional tension. There is plenty of gore - low budget gore however.If you ignore the script and ignore the survivors that don't know how to defend themselves and have many lucky escapes, the film does create tension and has plenty of gore. As a fan of Steven Seagal, I have given a generous 4 out of 10.

The movie derives its dramatic effect from the fact the main characters are stupid and continuously make the same mistakes over and over again: 1. They repeatedly split up in enemy territory, for reasons not explained. Although they mostly rejoin some minutes later, again for unknown reasons, it simply doesn't make sense. 2. The protagonists don't use weapons, not even sticks and stones (until one use after 75 minutes). I believe even cavemen had the knowledge that a fist is weaker than a rock. Oh, btw I couldn't figure any reason why this hospital had no windows at all. Of course besides the fact that it would reduce the movie down to 5 minutes, when they climb out of the window. The rest is just blood and gore, no combat choreography, no plot.