The Darkside (1987)

People are voting emotionally.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Blistering performances.

Not only is this film outdated (1987) but I would rephrase the film not as low budget but NO budget. The Darkside's monologue was so one dimensional that I thought a bunch of high school film students could have written a better script on their lunch hour then what was presented here.The evil villain laughed as if he were waiting for the film to start rolling so he was trying oh so hard to look realistic that it was pathetically overdone and amateurish. Throughout the film the co stars kept yelling the cab driver's name Tony, Tony, Tony, such that I wished someone would just kill Tony so I would not have to hear his name anymore.I would stay away from this NO budget film unless you want to irritate anyone who happens to be watching the film with you. It's a sure bet they will find some excuse to leave so that they don't have to watch another minute of this awful film.I give it a 2 out of 10 only because it was filmed in Toronto my hometown, otherwise it would have rated a 1 out of 10.

***SPOILERS*** Compared to the movie "Blue Velvet" but more like "Taxi Driver" the psychological thriller "The Darkside" has to do with this Toronto taxi driver Tony Russo, Tony Galati, who got involved with things other then picking up fares. It was Tony who becomes obsessed with this woman Laura, Cynthia Peterson, who he saved from being murdered by this creepy looking guy named Sully, John Tench, who was chasing her through the dark streets of Toronto wearing a white dinner jacket. We soon learn that Sully is working for this snuff film producer named Roscoe, Peter Read, who had Laura doing S&M as well as snuff movies in which she was, by still being alive, not the main character.Laura had taken a video tape of a movie she was featured in that had both Roscoe & Sully as supporting players in what seemed to be a snuff film. This tape if it made it's way to the Toronto PD could well put the two behind bars for the rest of their lives. Tony, in who's cab Laura hid the video tape, who in fact was totally unaware of what was going on ends up at the short end of the stick in being kidnapped raped, with an electric device, and almost killed! That's when Tony's tricked by Laura's former coke sniffing boyfriend Chuckie, David Hewlett, to crash a Toronto whorehouse-frequented by Hell's Angel type bikers-where he was told that the missing Laura was.Tony wasn't that bright in that he let himself be snookered by everyone, including Laura, in the movie that out him into one jam after another. The fact that he survived to see the ending credits was the most unrealistic part, in a movie that lacked realism, of the entire film. It was in fact Tony's friend and fellow taxi driver Lou, Charles Loriot, who gave him sound and honest advice all throughout the film but the love sick, for Laura,Tony was just too blind to notice it.****SPOILER****Lou who later saved Tony's life was in the end done in when, in a brief moment of deep reflection, he took his eye off his eventual killer who he thought he left for dead: by running him down with his car. The big showdown between Tony and Roscoe at his studio, an empty wear-house, didn't quite live up to the big buildup that preceded it. The what seemed like omnipresent and always in control Roscoe turned out to be a first class dud in overestimating himself and underestimating the always getting himself out of danger Tony! But it was Tony's confrontation with the back from the dead Sully that made the film worth while as well as giving it the lighting effect that was so lacking in it, with it being filmed mostly at night, up until then. P.S Actor Peter Read hadn't made a movie for some 25 years until he got the part of the sleazy snuff producer Roscoe. His last, and only, film up until then was that of the suicidal husband John Haloran in the 1963 cult horror classic "Dementia 13". With Read's amazing and electrifying performance in "The Dark Side" you wondered why nobody bothered to cast him in any movie for that long period of time! That's unless Read couldn't find a script worthy enough of his great talents until "The Darkside" came his way!

Mostly influenced by Paul Schrader and Martin Scorcese films: From "Taxi driver": The hero is a taxi driver working night shifts and dealing with prostitutes, pimps, punks and generally the scum of the earth. He tries to protect a girl who just escaped from some guys shooting a sex/ snuff film. This brings to mind Schrader's "Hardcore". There's also the odd humor and funny sequence here and there and some plot twists that reminded me of "After hours". In the end our man arms himself with a gun and takes care of the criminals, but not without suffering loss himself. It's worth mentioning that the bad guys are so over the top and exaggerated , they almost are comic book creations. And their dress code makes them look as if they stepped out of some early Fassbinder b&w film( Drugs and drug use are also prominent). Supposedly the baddies are making "snuff" films. But nothing is really explained. They are seen laughing satanically over a couple of young frightened things, but they don't actually do anything. Perhaps they kill them with their evil laugh (?!). Cyndy (Cynthia)Preston's role certainly called for some "revelations" since she's supposedly making nudes, but she's only shown in underwear or under the bed sheets, otherwise she's pretty much covered. All in all, a b movie, low production values, cheap performances, cheesy action, but not with some merit for the connoisseurs of the genre.

On the whole, the film is not very good but it does have a few redeeming qualities, the best being the presence of the ever-talented actor, David Hewlett, as 'Chuckie'.If I had to grade the film on David Hewlett's performance alone then it would have been given a 9 or 10. He made an extremely credible junkie, especially in his final scene.However, the terrible overacting by other cast members made this film excruciating bad at times with much of the film failing to inspire any real horror or fear... except for the one scene where Russo (the lead) is captured by the two (over the top) bad guys, bound and threatened with rape.As the previous comment stated... Blue Velvet? Not really... but if, like me, you are a fan of David Hewlett, then you'll be happy as long as you have a fast forward button for your VCR to get to his scenes.