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Sick Product of a Sick System

Nice effects though.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

THE DARK TAPES is yet another found footage horror effort which mixes in science fiction elements for an anthology tape. The format is immediately recognisable from the likes of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY while there's some social media activity to get it bang up to date. Sadly, the lack of money means that ghosts and demons are discussed rather than shown, and it's all very static and talky when it should be involving and thrilling.

I am a definite fan of the found footage genre, and I usually have a fairly high threshold for getting grossed out, but this is just plain sick schlock. I couldn't even finish watching the trailer, so that should give you an idea of what my opinion of the entire movie was like. There's no artistry or imagination in anything anymore, it's just become all about how many buttons can we push and how much fake blood can we splatter over the screen. I also took an immediate dislike to ALL of the characters just from what I saw. Look at the trailer and see for yourself, but I'm not going to waste any more time with this thing.

The movie starts out a bit scattered, but quickly dives into the most poorly written plot I've ever seen. This is supposed to be a " found footage" type film. Well, it missed the mark by a mile. The 3 stories made no sense, and related to nothing. So! You could call this this a spoiler, but there's nothing really to spoil. This movie has sleepy ghosts, aliens, and a psycho family?? I'm not sure where the director tried to go with the this movie, but I know he never made to there. The stories are scattered, special effects were decent, but not really scary at all. This movie has a run time of 80 min. Please understand, this will be 80 min of your life that will want back desperately, but to no avail, much like this movie, it's just gonna be time wasted. Do yourselves a favor and avoid this movie. If not, I really hope you enjoy it more than I did. Happy viewing.

The Dark Tapes takes full advantage of the potential for creative control the independent film scene offers production teams. So often, I feel disappointed after watching independent films that take the same route (and same shortcuts) as mainstream productions whose content is homogenized, handcuffed by studio memorandums - the same jump scares, the same plot lines, the same character tropes - too little creativity on a platform that offers so much room for innovation.Following in the footsteps of classic horror compilations, be they also found footage (such as VHS 1 & 2) or standard horror affair (Body Bags, Southbound, Trick 'r Treat, All Hallows Eve), or even further back to the founding fathers of horror anthology (Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horrors, Creepshow), The Dark Tapes is sure to deliver if what you are after is a creepy, genuinely-thought provoking anthology horror film that stays true to the found footage format without entering the territory of feeling too contrived. The story is intelligently written and the stories offer enough variety to satiate fans of the weird, fans of sci-fi, monsters, blood 'n guts, and psychological horror alike. This was a great outing and I'm looking forward to the next outing by writer/director Michael McQuown and co!