Darkest Night – The Reason You Don’t Holiday With Family

The holidays are about being with family right?  I mean there is nothing better than hanging out with family members, some that you may not have seen since; well since the last holiday gathering.  You see though, the thing with family gatherings around the holidays, there is usually some place you can go to disappear and get a little alone time in.  Unless of course the entire family goes on vacation for Christmas, as is the case with Darkest Night, when you don’t want to be left alone.

Darkest Night takes us to the mysteries islands of the Philippines and the mountains of Luzon.  It is a found footage documentary that tries to explain why a family disappeared at the site of ruins of a mansion in the mountains.

Darkest Night Plot

This movie unfolds as a flashback, or found footage style.  We being the journey in the present time with our narrator explaining the his words that he as investigating an unsolved crime when he happens to find a videotape that provides some revealing information.  Why is it always a video tape?  We see the narrator and his crew of workers working at the crime site.  Then we fade to black and the real movie begins.

Were sticking with the independent films here, and this one really has nothing to do with Christmas other than the fact that it takes place on Christmas Day in 2003.  Character wise we have Michelle and David – owners of the mansion.  Their daughter Susan, and her American fiancé Ken, along with his sister, and Justin, Susan’s brother who is taping the whole ordeal.

As family and friends are gathered, an earthquake rocks the area and the mansion loses power.  (Cliché, I know right?)  As the family awaits the return of power and some answers, the television magically comes on.  No power though right?  Of course what we see on the television is a little disturbing as the family see’s a pagan ritual with some weird singing.

Then people start to disappear and die.  Things start to come together as the black magic Bible of Michelle is found.  One by one more of the family is removed from the picture.  Tricked by the demon-god who wrote or inspired the book, Michelle kills herself, and we find out the only way to lift the curse is for there to be a wedding; and then the bride must castrate the groom.

Susan tries to break the curse by leading a séance, but she soon finds that her fiancé is dead.  We go back to the television, and now Ken and Michelle are making love in a weird story twist at the outdoor altar of the pagan cult.  Michelle then castrates her son-in-law to be, and the entire family, save for Susan and Justin are gathered in the cult television.  Before the film ends however, those two would join the rest of the family.

Our investigators dig up the dark magic book, and the wedding rings of Susan and Ken appear with the book.

Here is proof that just because something is independent means its going to be bad. There have been some found footage films that are just plain horrible. This one has plenty of gore in it for not being a “slasher”.

I give this film 2.5 bloody Christmas trees. It wasn’t a perfect movie, there were some good spots, and there were some spots that needed work. I don’t hate myself for seeing the movie, but wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again.