Dark Summer (2015)

The best actors in Hollywood need to get that big role before their career can take off. No matter how good they are, until they find that role, they won't be a household name and are forced to take whatever roles they can get. Even megastars, like Chris Pratt got his start on a low rated CW drama, and did B-movies for a decade before he was cast as Star Lord, this is the position Keir Gilchrist finds himself in now. Gilchrist is an exceptional young actor, who always gives his best, but without that big role on his resume, he's forced to take jobs like this one. Dark Summer follows Daniel, (Gilchrist) a 17 year old who has recently been sentenced to house arrest for stalking a girl from his school. To make matters worse, his parents are away for the summer and Daniel is all alone. As boredom ware away at him mind, Daniel starts to see things and wonders if he's being punished for his crimes by some supernatural entity, or if he's just going insane from boredom. For much of this movie, the actor is bored, and if the actor is bored, what do you think the audience is feeling? Daniel's days are filled with monotonous discussions with friends, who sneak over, and of course investigations that turn up nothing. As for his nights, they are filled with a lot of jump scares and loud noises that again ultimately turn up nothing, as Dark Summer is just one of those films where nothing happens until the last twenty minutes, and by then, who really cares anymore? The bottom line, even a great actor couldn't save this film, it's your typical supernatural horror film, filled with a lot of jump scares, good looking people, and a whole lot of nothing else until the very end.

To start off, lately I've started to watch lower rated movies to find the hidden gems that may be out there. This experience led me to Dark Summer.While the concept of the movie is intriguing, the movie itself fell short. The acting was not the greatest, however also not the worst. Possibly with a better script we could have seen some breathtaking shots from them unfortunately that's just not so. The camera work involves too many close ups, most of which are unnecessary, but is otherwise decently done.For a horror/thriller the movie is just not there.

This Independent, Low-Budget Paranormal Picture has enough Visual Flourishes and Mystical Appeal to Overcome the somewhat Sluggish Pacing. A few Dabs of Gore are Intercut with a lot of Dialog About Possession and maybe a bit too Much Emphasis on Seances and Fighting Off the Haunting with Tutoring from the Internet.It is the On-Line "Guide for the Haunting" and how to get rid Of it that comes off as Sophomoric and frankly Boring. This goes on for much of the Middle. The Acting is OK and the Plot, while Ambiguous at times, is Trying Hard to be a bit Different.A modicum of Success is Achieved in this intriguing Happening, but Modern Horror Fans seem to want more Chills and Blood than this one is willing to offer. Not an Awful Film but Never Rises to its Goal of Producing a Teen-Oriented Midnight Movie with a Twist.Worth a Watch for Horror and Paranormal Movie Completest. It is somewhat Off-Beat but at the Same Time shows many a Meandering Scenes (the exorcising of the haunting by corny incantations being the Film's most glaring failing).

Well, that was a mixed ride. From a decent horror concept, Dark Summer had some excellent sound design, really good cinematography and a perfect soundtrack of songs from Elysian Field On the other hand, the script was nothing more than mediocre. The directing was pretty poor, casting and acting in itself really awful.Dark Summer could just as well have ended up very good, if all those moments had been addressed. Instead, it ended up as somewhat of an annoyance to me personally. In the end, the rating of 5 does not really mean that I found it bland. Sooner the opposite. Some elements were closer to strong 8s, other closer to 2s. It's a pity, really.SMALL SPOILERAnd yeah, Stormare was good, as always. Just very, very wrongly cast, as his presence in itself says that his seemingly insignificant character really plays a somewhat larger part.