Against the Dark (2009)

This will be a strange review. Objectively this is a terrible film. Two bland locations are used to portray a world over-run by vampire/mutants. There is no real context just a short voice-over by one of the main characters explaining that the world has been overtaken by a virus.A film made on the cheap, with an appalling script written by a literate infant. At one point a key character is explaining to the others just how bad things are, at least that's what he says he is doing... In truth he is stating the obvious and in fairly mild terms. Later he is wandering around and runs into the vigilante group led by Seagal and he is told that luck is liable to run out! No sh** Sherlock, the guy is locked in a manky hospital with an army of raging mutants inside and out.The acting is mostly okay, but Steven Seagal is so wooden it is hard to distinguish him from the scenery.Otherwise it's reasonable especially at some have no lines at all, aka attendants one and two :) There is horror and action in good measure but overall the film is a stinker. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.HOWEVER, I don't mind it. In fact I've seen it a few times. The score reflects an objective review not what I think entirely. I like the feeling of being under siege by ravening monsters, I quite like gory scenes and a bit of action. In this sense it's a fair effort for me,largely because I'm weird and easily pleased, but most people will undoubtedly hate it.

Steven Seagal Vs Zomb...Vamp...Mutants?Movie tells a familiar story of a killer virus mutating people and few survivors trying to, well survive even more. There are all so "hunter" who just walk around the city killing Zomb..Vamp...Mutants? Well really one character does the killing, and its not Segal...I don't really know why they call it a Seagal movie because Steve is not really the main character, he is just walking and attacking the camera grew, he only has few lines and don't have much screen time. Movie would been much better if Tanoai Reed were the main character, because that dude fighting was the only thing i liked this movie.Something about the survivors? Well they run a lot and have no homing instinct, i see lots of maps on the hospital but no one is taking one with them.... I wonder how people with no weapons could survive in this Zomb...Vamp...Mutant? infested world.This was a really sad movie... 2 points to Tanoai Reed, give this dude all the movies Seagal tries to do.

The movie derives its dramatic effect from the fact the main characters are stupid and continuously make the same mistakes over and over again: 1. They repeatedly split up in enemy territory, for reasons not explained. Although they mostly rejoin some minutes later, again for unknown reasons, it simply doesn't make sense. 2. The protagonists don't use weapons, not even sticks and stones (until one use after 75 minutes). I believe even cavemen had the knowledge that a fist is weaker than a rock. Oh, btw I couldn't figure any reason why this hospital had no windows at all. Of course besides the fact that it would reduce the movie down to 5 minutes, when they climb out of the window. The rest is just blood and gore, no combat choreography, no plot.

I can accept Steven Seagal is never going to reach the popularity he had in the mid 80's and early 90's, but what compels him to make these cookie cutter direct to video releases in the last 5 years I don't know. Every year the movies he makes make less and less sense.Where to begin on this one...the back of the box says "katana master Tao (Seagal) leads a team of black op mercenaries with a massacre in mind, their target: Vampires." As we get the movie underway, within the first 5 minutes they explain that they're not really vampires but a hybrid between zombie and vampire. Think 28 days later....that's strike one because I wanted to see Seagal go head to head with Stephen Dorff or something.At first we meet Seagal's gang of mercenaries which turns out to be him, a dude and 2 chicks. They're supposed to clear out the place just the 4 of them? Unless they're the X-Men I don't buy it. Then we meet the group of about 6 random people trapped in the hospital where the entire movie takes place. Their mission is to get to ground level and out to a car.......and that's where the crap begins. The 6 "survivors" repeatedly run into the "vampires" who are so incompetent that none of the survivors die for the first 45 minutes. In fact, Seagal's crew doesn't do a damn thing after the initial slaying for another half hour. They show various camera shots of him walking around while the rest of the morons run for their lives. The dialogue comes off as so horrible you begin to want the group to just die already. In fact, none of the group buys the farm until Seagal's gang shows up. That's just awful security isn't it? In fact, the only member of Seagal's crew worth anything is Tagart, and sadly he's not on screen enough to save this film.I won't elaborate further because the idea of going over the rest makes my head hurt. The overall fact was it looked to be a monster movie but was in fact just an ordinary zombie movie and all Seagal does is flail away with a kitana sword. Like I said, is this the best role he could play these days? The only 2 highlights is David Keith (a real life friend of Seagal) and Johnny Cage (forgot the actor's name but he plays Cage) debating whether to blow the hospital up.Horrible....2 out of 10