Shocking Dark — Shocking Dark(Blu Ray)
If you're looking for competent, well-made, and suspenseful Sci-fi/ Horror film, best look elsewhere. But if you in the mood for a host of what-hell moments, unintentionally amusing dialogue, and general bad film-making chaos- you’ll get a kick out of this. Here on Severin Films, we have the first ever Blu Ray release of the film
Shocking Dark( aka Terminator 2) is from 1989 and was directed by one of the master of Italian rip-off/ schlock- Bruno Mattei. And it was co-written by Claudio Fragasso & Rossella- who have wrote ‘bad-film’ classics such as Troll 2, Monster Dog, and Rats: Nights Of Terror.
The film is set in a polluted Italian future- where in Venice a team of researchers are working to resolve the situation. Suddenly, an unknown force starts killing off the researchers. So a ‘crack’ team of soldiers and a couple of civilians are sent in to investigate. Soon, they are knocked off one-by-one by strange murderous creatures, which have developed due to the pollution.
The films action is mainly set in an abandoned factory/ underground train- and this finds the team running around it corridors, & encounter ever so often the rubber-suited tentacle hung & glowing-eyed monsters - that look like they’ve escaped from a 50’s sci-fi film. In-between we get a mix of tacky, at times fairly racial offensive banter, along with Aliens/ Terminator ripped off dialogue. Shots of flashing light ribbed control room, lots of dry ice, and dramatic lighting. There’s never really any gore or sleaze present though-out the film's runtime; so really you just have to revel in both the mash-up/ bad acting.
The new 2k transfer looks as good as you could expect for a low-budget film from the late 80’s. And extras wise you get two fifteen minute interview- the first is from the two writers and the second from actress Geretta Geretta- who played one of the 'tough' crack team. Both interviews are fairly informative, and often amusing. Lastly, you get an original trailer for the film
Shocking Dark is neither a good film or a ‘good bad’ film. Equally, it’s far from the best of the chessy Alien Rip-offs; for my money, I’d say Creepozoids wins that award. But if your after a truly trashy, often funny & campy 80’s sci-fi/ horror rip-off I’d give it a try.