"Darkness" is a lot of fun and certainly enjoyable for a low-budget vampire film.**SPOILERS**In a small town, Tobe, (Gary Miller) manages to find that a vampire plague has overtaken the citizens, and continually runs into the deadly creatures wherever he goes. Finally managing to find survivors in Greg, (Michael Gisick) Kelly, (Cena Donham) Dianne, (Lisa Franz) Glenn, (Bill Hooper) and Steve, (Christopher Owen Michael) who have all had experiences with vampires as well. As they spend more time together and develop a way of dealing with the creatures, the confrontations with them slowly start dwindling their numbers as the vampires grow in size, strength and cunning. Holding out hope that his good friend, master vampire slayer Jodie, (Steve Brown) is still alive through it all they set out to find him and use his expertise to help them. Finally reaching his place, they realize that the vampire plague is spreading faster and must survive against the deadly threat.The Good News: There's some really nice stuff to this one. One of the greatest parts to this is that there's a large amount of graphic gore in here. This one is really littered with a lot of bloody gore and graphic violence in here, which is a big plus and really helps this one. The amount of gore comes from the really brutal deaths as well, and the ones here are really great. There's some that have the skin melt down completely from the exposure to the sunlight down to bubbling skin and torn flesh, a whole slew of gunshots to just about every single orifice capable of handling a bullet, a massive amount of bites to the neck, throat and arms, in most cases ripping skin away to get more blood to come out, a creature knocked to pieces after being run over by a truck, chopped to pieces with a chainsaw, a couple are repeatedly stabbed with knives and sharp objects and another has their arm sliced into with a machete and then sawed off, leaving a ton of blood to occur. There's a lot more in here, leaving a large amount of blood and gore to appear. That's a big reason for this one to be enjoyed. There's also a large amount of action in here, mainly because there's a rather large number of confrontations in here. That's also good as well, making it really hard to lose interest in the film since it's got plenty to enjoy about it. From the battle in the abandoned house, where a big brawl makes out a lot of excitement through the destruction of the house and the gore-filled finish, a big shootout with them on a deserted highway road, a confrontation in an alley way and the opening scene in the deli is a classic, for it's a fast and hard-hitting scene that really feels quite exciting and is definitely fun to watch. It also opens the film on the right note, as it's a gory, action-packed sequence that is a real shock to see so quickly in the film's running time. All of the film's action scenes are like that, really fun and big, which makes them so entertaining and are paced at just the right interval to keep from getting boring, so there's really no big lulls in the action to this one. The last big plus is the film's ability to hide the reason for the resurrection and the war that occurs here is kept unknown, making it just like a seeming onslaught that occurs for no reason, and that's always a fun reason for the film. These here are the film's best points.The Bad News: This one here didn't have too many flaws at all. One of the big ones is that the film's low-budget is quite apparent. Here, it sticks out mainly in the use of the blood and gore on display, which is mostly just colored water and not at all very realistic as well as the special effects used for the vampires. It's not that they're bad, but the fact that they're very obviously just plastic or prosthetics, which is quite easy to spot and pick up and makes for plenty of moments where it's hard to take the scene seriously as they take you right out of the film. The other flaw to this is the film's ability to take a ton of liberties with the vampire route and almost turn them into another creature altogether. The aversion to sunlight and holy water is kept, but here they are so bloodthirsty they don't mind spilling it all over the place or tearing open any place to get at it, they get taken down from gunshots anywhere on the body and they have a pack mentality like zombies, and all of these are very different from the usual vampire rules. These here are what's really wrong with the film.The Final Verdict: With a lot to really like about this one and only a couple really mild flaws that aren't too damaging, this one is a really worthwhile entry. Give it a shot if you're into the low-budget horror fare or a hardcore gore-hound, as well as vampire fanatics, while those who can't stand the budgetary issues should heed caution.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Violence and some Language

I found Darkness to be just too DARK. It had a kind of cool idea and some ambitious ideas, not bad action scenes and a few splashy moments to make you go UGH! BUT, it was underlit to the point of confusion. You don't really know what is always going on in the dark scenes and for a film that is shot on Super 8 Film, you already have all that nasty grain to deal with. As with Nathan Schiff movies, it's just too much. Director Leif Jonker seems to want to make an original film, but he lacks the know-how to do it. The camera is never pointed in the right place, lack of fundamentals such as how to shoot simple dialogue scenes and how to light a movie hurt as well. The actors are all pretty uneven and hammy. But despite these negatives, the music is good, the gore is plenty and ranges from silly putty to really good appliances. Is this a classic like it says? Is it worthy of the two discs worth of praise? NO. But it is a good first try. Now if these guys would stop patting themselves on the back about this movie (from what I understand here the only one they have ever finished) for a while and try again, they may do better.

The title of this review sums up my opinion on this gore scale-tipping splatterfest. This is a movie made by gorehounds for gorehounds.The "story" follows a vampire outbreak in what looks like a small town. A few metalheads have to defend themselves against hordes of zompires (I call them this because even though the movie is about vampires, they are basically zombies who can't stand the sun). Gore ensues as some kids die, some carve the zompires up with chainsaws and other weapons, all leading up to the goriest meltdown that is one of the goriest scenes I have ever seen.Like I said, this movie is for gorehounds and basically no one else, but if you seek splatter, look no further than Leif Jonker's Darkness.

A vampire movie like no other. Leif Jonker should be praised for his attempts to drag the vampire genre out of the terrible goth phase its currently lingering in.A well written plot combines with great gore and some genuinely terrifying scenes to make a great movie. The sense of menace and terror is never far from the screen, and the end is truly horrific