Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

TdSmth5 A cop is investigating crimes by a serial killer. A woman somehow escaped the killer's clutches and is in the hospital. There the cop runs into an attractive psychiatrist looking into the case. But as usual, he's got to be a jerk about working with someone else. She warns him that the girl is too traumatized and won't talk to some tough cop. And she's right. The girl opens up to her and we see the things the killer makes the girls he kidnaps go through. And it's pretty nasty stuff.We also learn about the killer. He's got a slow brother that helps out. He gives long speeches to the victims and all this came about by how he was treated by his mother. The focus now shifts entirely to the girls in the basement, and how they gather strength and are able to do something about their situation. But from the escaped girl, we learn something else. We learn that the killer has a next victim in mind.A Darker Reality surprised me. I wasn't expecting much. It has a 90s B movie look and feel to it. But it does have the courage to take psychological terror to a new level and it's pretty uncompromising about it.

andishorrorblog Some movies are just down right disturbing. The imagery is so dark it sticks with you and not easily forgotten. This is one of those movies. Daniel Baldwin does a decent job playing the sadistic killer. The only reason I didn't give this movie higher marks was the acting by the cop and forensics lady, everyone else's acting was pretty good. It's odd to just have a couple of bad actors…either they are all good or all bad. Anyway, these two were bad enough to stick out.The story itself, a sick killer who kidnaps, tortures and kills woman isn't as clichéd as it sounds. The imagery and torture is very intimate, in some scenes it felt as if your right there in the same room. Not many movies can boast such a quality.If you got a strong stomach and can handle torture movies, I recommend this one!

kezopster I'm hesitant watching movies featuring other members of the Baldwin family not naked Alec. Sorry guys, but there have been quite a few clunkers along the way, you know? So, I was skeptical going into this and pleasantly surprised with the performance submitted by Daniel Baldwin as the villain. (No spoiler, it's revealed early in the film.) (As another reviewer mentioned, the cop scenes are trite. For worse, stilted cop scenes, see the movie THE WICKED.) From reading the other reviews, I'm guessing the point of the movie was focusing on the trauma being experienced by the victims, experiencing their horror. That's probably half the film and if I consider my viewing through that lens, then I still can't up my score. The female actors did a good job, but it still felt over-the-top too often.While the film attempts giving motivation to "The Ghost," his methods feel haphazard. SAW had motivation and over-the-top style to the killings. HOSTEL did the same. Heck, even Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE or THE HILLS HAVE EYES had the killing room better thought out. Or, maybe I watch too much DEXTER.

stsinger A few years ago Chris Kazmier and Christopher Hutson put out a film called "Dark Reality." It was a very different type of film; mostly improvised, it dealt with several women who had been captured by a lunatic and imprisoned. It focused almost entirely on the women in captivity. Strong stuff that was difficult to watch -- the IMDb page now claims the cast and crew thought it was "a joke," but if you watch the film and see what the actresses put themselves through, it's no joke.Now a few years later, Kazmier is back with an expansion of the original film called "A Darker Reality." Caught it on VOD recently in advance of its DVD release. The film takes the original premise and expands it. It shows us the actual psycho (played by Daniel Baldwin -- no spoilers there, that's his entire character) and shows the police attempts to find and capture him and save the women.Let's get the problems out of the way first -- the police stuff is bad. Pretty much "Movie/TV Police 101" -- gruff detective gets a partner he doesn't want, etc. But much of the movie focuses on the trapped women and the narrative of an escaped survivor, and holy crap, it is harrowing. You really feel the utter helplessness of these women and it's legitimately disturbing. And somehow, having Daniel Baldwin as the psycho makes it even a little creepier. It's not perfect and there are things that stretch credibility even in this type of film (for example, the psycho manages to have an absurd amount of victims in one area) and while the ending is a punch in the gut, it's a little confusing. And as you can tell from this review, it is definitely not for everyone. But it is very well done, and I am definitely looking forward to purchasing this film when it comes out on DVD so hopefully get some "Behind the scenes" things.