I like watching found footage movies on my iPad. There is a certain immediacy/intimacy when watching them on a tablet... like you're just reviewing footage rather than sitting back in a comfy chair to watch a film. It sort of enhances the experience for me.
Boring story short, I had to watch today's movie on the iPad. So I cruised through my options on the amazon app, and stopped on Dark Vision. Not just one, but *five* teams of paranormal investigators compete to win their own show in the "Dark Vision Competition!" I could be getting five crappy ghost hunting movies for the price of one! (Against my better judgement, I love the damned things.) Well, the synopsis is pretty misleading - we only follow around one team as they investigate the basement/cave-like tunnels beneath "one of Britain's most haunted locations." The other four teams are only hinted at using text onscreen, and have next-to-nothing to do with the story. But I was still pleasantly surprised with Dark Vision - it's a pretty entertaining film that is moderately successful as a horror film, and probably even more successful as a comedy.
The "show" we're watching is called "Mind-full with Spencer Knights," and it's hosted by psychic/ hypnotist Spencer Knights. He's joined by a tech guy, a rookie cameraman, a past-her-prime actress, and an old co-investigator who left him years ago to branch out on her own. Much of the comedy comes from the fact that this team is not very good at what they do. They have cheap props, have a hard time staying on task, and throw verbal jabs at each other. But they are a pretty likable group - a rarity for these ghost-hunter things. They are kind of like the lovable underdogs of the paranormal investigation world.
After a humorous encounter with the elderly caretaker of the property, we get the history of the tunnels they'll be investigating. The tunnels date back to the days of the black plague, where they were used as a hospital. There was a doctor who thought he was doing "the lords work" by ending the suffering of plague victims. The problem was he got a little too into it, and started killing people who probably didn't need to be killed. He would carry around this big wooden cane with a crazy handle that he would use to strangle his victims (so he could remain out of plague-getting distance, I guess). Rumor has it that on some nights you can still hear him wandering around the tunnels, tapping his wooden cane. Creepy.
So, as you would guess, shenanigans ensue with the "Mind-full" crew. At first (the first half of the film) the shenanigans are mostly comedic - and usually they are actually funny! But then, the group encounters an evil more significant than they could have hoped for or dreamed of. There is a pretty significant tonal shift here, and Dark Vision is mostly straight-ahead horror from that point on. There are lots of horror-comedies out there, but usually the two genres are just kind of blended. It was an interesting approach to abruptly switch gears from comedy to horror.
Dark Vision is undoubtedly a low budget film (as is most ghost-hunting fare), but it still looks pretty decent. It's surprisingly colorful and lively looking for a film that is mostly set in underground caves. It also bucks the found footage trend a bit - while they use some footage from the investigator's cameras, they also have a lot of traditionally-shot footage mixed in there. I appreciated this approach. Writer-director Darren Flaxstone uses found footage as an aesthetic when it is appropriate for the story and/or thrills, but then abandons it when it isn't. And it works well. Sure, you lose a little of the illusion, but as more and more of these found footage films come out, the illusion isn't as strong now anyways.
The horror elements are okay. There is nothing super-scary/tense here, but the shock scenes are competently done/presented. (There is a really good riff on the old now-you-see-it-now-you-don't scare using an iPad.) Dark Vision does rely a *little* too much on the smash-cut/loud sting brand of scares, but you can't win 'em all. There isn't much gore to speak of other than the occasional offscreen splatter. What little else you do get is overly CGI, but that's kind par for the course with low budget films these days. But it's thankfully kept to a minimum.
But what I appreciated the most about the film is that the main ghost is played by a person. I really get irked by these types of movies where they jazz up the spirits with all kinds of "ghostly" effects - making them glow/being all jerky in their movement/whatever - it's rare to see one that doesn't look kind of stupid. So Dark Vision just has a person lurking around - conveniently, the "Mind-full" crew brought a big black monk's robe and a plague-doctor mask (with the bird-like beak). It does the job well and doesn't leave you shaking your head about how crappy it looks.
Overall, I rather enjoyed Dark Vision - it wasn't what I was expecting (I'm still waiting for my crappy ghost hunting anthology), but it was pretty fun. The comedic (and British) flavor was enough to make it stand out amongst a crowded field, and it's pretty well done too boot, if not terribly scary.
I would recommend this film.
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