Ghost hunting gone wrong has become one of the go-to subgenres in horror ever since SyFy debuted its now defunct reality series, “Ghost Hunters.” In the span of ten years, we’ve seen a number of films in this category; some that are better left in years gone by and others, like Grave Encounters, that have revived the story-line and kept the subgenre on almost every recently released horror list. Gentoo Films’ Within the Darkness is a new ghost hunting gone wrong film from Jonathan Zuck, and it saw its VOD premiere on April 3 courtesy of Indican Pictures. Written by Zuck and Cheryl Compton, Within the Darkness follows a small group of friends hoping to grasp fame and fortune as the next big thing in the ghost hunting business. Believers at heart, they never thought they’d stumble upon the real deal…until today. While shooting footage for their proposed reality series, they investigate the fabled Hewitt House. Once night falls, the evil spirit awakens and the rumors of death and destruction become truth, and it’ll all be captured on camera. Erin Nicole Cline, Dave Coyne, Tonya Kay, John Bailey, Shannon Forrestall, Jill Redding and Jennifer Osborn star in a fun supernatural flick that begs you to be careful what you wish for.
And that’s the biggest problem here, really. Within the Darkness is just that…fun. There’s quite literally 0% horror to be found here. They tried, they failed, and Within the Darkness reads more like the Chris Hansen of Paranormal Investigators than it resembles anything scary. I blame it all on lack of atmosphere. From the start, this film from director Jonathan Zuck never felt like anything scary or anything that was going to try and become scary. The mood was one of fun and “let’s go with the flow,” and the final product came out well below the margin in terms of horror. This was a tremendous let down because, honestly, this movie had a lot going for it in terms of production value. It’s modern and edited perfectly by Dave Coyne for a generation that goes to YouTube for new creative content. Cinematographer Fernando Ortega did a wonderful job with the camera work, so I have no complaints about how this picture looks. Zuck and Compton wrote a script that didn’t attempt anything new, but there were some truly unexpected twists and turns; and the acting from the cast was well above-average. Hell, even the location was the perfect spot for a movie in this subgenre. I can only knock Within the Darkness for having the wrong mood, which ended up sucking the life out of it.
It’s an element that exists in a creator and viewers subconscious, but it is so, so integral to the success of a movie; especially when it’s a movie in the horror genre. Produced by Luke Daniels, Within the Darkness contains the traditional story-building of a ghost hunting gone wrong narrative. Character introductions, location scoutings, and lots of rumors until midway through its run time. There’s lots of fake-outs and little blips of a haunting until you hit that mark, but by then the atmosphere is completely lost and I felt like I could give Within the Darkness a G rating. Although, the reveal of the true villain was quite genius. I wish I had more to say on this one, but I don’t like giving away much of the plot to avoid spoiler repercussions. Would I watch this movie again? No. I wouldn’t. Is Within the Darkness worth the price of a stream? Honestly, only if you’re a huge fan of the ghost hunting gone wrong subgenre. I think everyone else would slaughter this movie with negative comments, too. Again, I’m super sad that it was mediocre and void of scare-factor because it was shot well, acted well, and had a lot of potential. Sorry, Gentoo team. Final Score: 4.5 out of 10.
