SFX
by MJ
Simpson
Darklands does for
Wales what The
Wicker Man did
for Scottish Islands, put you off going there for
life.
Craig
Fairbrass
(previously in Cliffhanger
and Nightscare)
stars as a reporter on a local paper who's returned to
his native town after living in London. His investigation
into the desecration of a local church uncovers an
underground pagan sect, but how is this linked to a fatal
accident at the local steelworks, the popularity of a
charismatic Welsh nationalist politician and a band of
local gypsies? Mr Fairbrass is eager to find out. Indeed,
as our hero delves deeper into the urban underbelly of
the town, spurred on by his new girlfriend's urge to know
more about her brother's death, he uncovers layers of
conspiracy and evil he never dreamt of.
Julian Richard's
assured debut feature wears its influences on its sleeve
-
The Wicker Man,
Rosemary's
Baby - but
still conveys a paranoia and tangible sense of evil all
its own. Like The
Wicker Man, it
stops short of any overt supernatural occurences, but
that doesn't stop it being unnerving in a way that a mere
by-the-numbers conspiracy thriller could never be.
Although Fairbrass is never going to win any oscars for
his character scenes, he's very good in the action
sequences and Jon
Finch is
wonderfully threatening as the corrupt politician.
Roger
Nott is also
suitably weird as a terrified priest. In fact the cast as
a whole are excellent, and you can't fault the film on
the technical front, taking into account the low budget.
A special tip of the hat to cinematographer
Zoran
Djordjevic, who
makes his feature debut after shooting second unit
material for Hackers.
He's undoubtebly responsible for much of the film's
paranoid atmosphere.
Darklands
is the best British horror film for years, you can't
afford to miss it.
TIME
OUT by
Nigel Floyd
Not for nothing has
Julian Richard's assured debut feature been dubbed the
Welsh 'Wicker Man'. The writer/director readily
acknowledges its debt to the 1973 horror
classic.
In his least
action-orientated role to
date,
Craig Fairbrass
plays Frazer Truick, a Welsh-born, London raised journo
whose investigations into a young steelworker's death
suggest links between the industrial 'accident', fervent
nationalist politician David Keller
(Jon
Finch) and an
uppity group of Celtic neo-pagans. Truick's nose for a
story and lust for the dead youth's beautiful sister,
trainee journo Rachel Morris
(Rowena
King), soon
have him knee deep in desecrated churches, slaughtered
pigs, crazy priests and a revivalist political
conspiracy.
Anyone familiar with
The
Wicker Man or
Rosemary's
Baby will
quickly guess that what Truick thinks may be a light at
the end of the tunnel, is infact an oncoming train. That
said, what the film lacks in narrative originality, it
makes up for in imaginative execution, despite the
limitations imposed by a modest £500,000 budget.
Richard's confident direction and cinematographer
Zoran
Djordjevic's
atmospheric visuals are complemented by a score that
effectively blends Test
Department's
percussive industrial noise with gentler Welsh folk
songs. By juxtaposing the scary intensity of ancient
pagan rituals with the grim beauty of a modern
post-industrial landscape, Darklands
draws upon evocative pre-Christian imagery while also
hinting at a more serious socio-economic subtext.
Together with Twin
Town and
House
Of America,
this conforms the recent revival in Welsh
film-making.
EMPIRE
by Kim
Newman
This Welsh-made debut
from writer/director, Julian
Richards earns
points for tackling themes liable to make him extremely
unpopular back home. Those upset by
Twin
Town are likely to
froth at the mouth with this, which suggests that Welsh
nationalism is a pagan conspiracy founded on blood
sacrifice and dedicated to restoring the country's
industrial strength by murder and black magic.
Frazer Truick
(Craig
Fairbrass),
Welsh born but brought up in London, is a hard drinking
journo on a provincial paper, suckered by siren Rachel
Morris (Rowena
King) into
investigating the mysterious death of her steel-worker
brother, which turns out to be linked with local politico
David Keller (Jon
Finch). Frazer
soon learns that almost everyone he trusts is part of
this big taff conspiracy, and that nothing he has been
told is the exact truth. Eventually he winds up on the
last train to London, in the film's creepiest scene,
discovering that it's impossible to escape from your
roots.
There's energy and
strangeness at work here. It's refreshing to find a
film-maker willing to tackle 90s Britain in a plot driven
genre movie rather than a meandering whinge.
SFX
by Guy
Haley
A home grown Cymric
product, as Welsh as leeks, this dark and forbidding
chiller marks a promising debut for young director
Julian
Richards.
Set in recession hit
Port Talbot, Darklands
has local reporter Frazer Truick digging through murky
pagan goings on as local churches are desecrated by
slaughtered pigs and what-have-you...It's obviously the
work of some dark force and not the local RSPCA, reckons
Truick, who finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a
drudic conspiracy. Craig
Fairbrass'
Truick, completely anglicised to the point of having a
cockney accent, is a perfect metaphor for Celtic cultural
angst, and his pedigree and fate as a sacrificial victim
is poetic. Darkland's villains - especially local
politician David Keller - are as well portrayed as they
are menacing. Richard's central message is also unusual,
attacking the Celtic renaissance for being intolerent.
(unless, of course he's implying all anglicised Welshmen
should be ritually slaughtered. You never
know).
In the world of British
film-making, it's an impressive achievement.
Julian
Richards is
definately a name to watch out for.
UNCUT
by Chris
Roberts
Surprisingly diverting
horror thriller, set in South Wales and prompting a
terrific performance from Cliffhanger's
Craig
Fairbrass as a
reporter lured into a mire of pagan rituals and the
occult by svelte 'trainee
journalist'
Rowena King.
Before he knows it,
he's up to his elbows in pigs blood and human sacrifices.
The pace builds relentlessly till his caught - literally
- on a one-way train to hell and damnation.
Black as
coal!
CHAPTER
by Dave
Prothero
Even
Julian
Richards would
admit that his debut feature
Darklands
exhibits rough edges. But, the first truly indigenous
Welsh horror film, the whole is driven by a surprising
anger that means it seldom loses momentum. Actually
written eight years ago, the film appears to emerge from
Richards' frustrations as an English-speaking Welshman
trying to launch a film career at home. Its lead villain
the neo-Nazi leader of a Welsh nationalist cult
(Jon
Finch),
Darklands
addresses the
hegemony of Welsh language culture in the principality -
and as such displays the same ambivalent attitude towards
Welshness as does Kevin Allen's scabrous
Twin
Town and Marc
Evans' moving House
Of America
The third horror movie
produced by London's Metrodome outfit (in consequence it
stars that company's mascot,
Craig
Fairbrass),
Darklands
came about when
Richards approached Metrodome
with his script for the futuristic Celtic
action-adventure Warlord.
Despite winning several short film prizes in the late
1980s and a near-sale to Steven
Spielberg,
Richards was deemed too inexperienced to helm the
project, and so rather than relinquish
Warlord
to another, he offered to prove himself by directing
Darklands.
In theory costing £1M+ but in actuality coming in at
less than half that amount, the result is a triumph of
innocence over experience. Boasting an array of
impressive night-time shots and one particularly
impressive sequence set on a train,
Darklands
has already secured Richards his next feature,
The
Monkey Farm -
which will shortly lens in Canada.
An assured debut
that wears it's influences on it's sleeve but still
conveys a paranoia and tangible sense of evil all of its
own - the best British horror film for
years.
M.J Simpson, SFX.
A gleeful collage of
bits of other horror films stuck together with such an
obvious devotion to the genre that it's hard not to be
swept along by the bravura of it all.
James
Avery, Shivers.
Weird, exciting, a
powerful sense of evil and some tremendously atmospheric
sequences. James
Avery, Shivers.
Atmospheric, dark and
sometimes intense. The best horror film that Britain has
produced this decade. Tris
Thompson, Samhain.
There's energy and
strangeness at work here. It's refreshing to find a film
maker willing to tackle 90's Britain in a plot driven
genre movie. Kim
Newman, Empire.
This film has a gritty
intelligence that cleverly draws the audience towards a
terrifying climax. Mark
Adams, NFT.
By juxtaposing the
scary intensity of ancient pagan rituals with the grim
beauty of a modern post industrial landscape,
Darklands
draws upon evocative pre-christian imagery while also
hinting at a more serious socio-economic subtext.
Nigel
Floyd, Time Out.
A slick shocker that
touches upon the blasphemies perpertrated by peak period
Clive Barker. Darrel
Buxton, Samhain.
This film has raw
energy and delivers it's quota of shocks.
Dave
Berry, Ffocws.
A dark, eerie film that
should become a cult classic.
Graeme
Gunn, Coast to Coast.
A deeply disturbing and
highly imaginative film. Dave
Hughes, Fangoria.
A provocative blend of
political conspiracy and outright horror.
Dave
Prothero, Chapter.
