Darkroom (2013)★★★☆☆

This movie was mostly okay. To be honest, I was expecting a little more torture porn, but it was relatively tame. There are a few graphic scenes but nothing over the top or out of place.

The cast was mostly okay. I’d seen a few of the actors in different roles before, but everyone’s character was fairly believable. I did have a problem with the family chemistry though. While the individual characters were fine, as a family I just wasn’t buying it.

Also, the plot was a bit thin. It’s like someone saw the movie Carrie and wanted to write about a whole family raised by Margaret White. It’s actually an interesting concept, and the movie has some promise. But it’s paced a bit slowly and doesn’t really pull off anything original.

Oh, and the background music is pretty annoying. I really hate it when filmmakers use music to try to evoke a mood that hasn’t been earned, and this movie does a lot of that. Like, a lot of it. Sometimes there was music playing before any of the characters started moving – like they’d be standing still in a room, nothing changing, but the background music would suddenly be very dramatic.

But it’s not the worst thing I’ve seen and it’s reasonably entertaining throughout, so it might be worth a watch.