VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Leofwine_draca Whilst the plot owes a huge debt of inspiration to THE WICKER MAN (except the fertility "sun-worshipping" cult is relocated to Wales from a Scottish island, and a gang of poorly-dressed gypsies and Druid weirdos instead), and whilst it can't hope to equal that 1973 classic, DARKLANDS is a pretty good thriller for the modern horror genre which keeps its feet firmly on the ground. Due to the low budget, there are no elaborate special effects sequences or fancy action scenarios - instead, just a gritty, depressive feel to the film and plenty of suspense at the same time, especially towards the last half an hour.The biggest flaw this film has is its predictability - at all stages there's a "seen it all before" kind of feel. Plot twists involving friendly characters turning out to be bad guys are easy to spot and incredibly obvious, and the downbeat outcome, whilst short, and with maximum horror, also comes as no surprise to seasoned horror fans who may have seen THE WICKER MAN. Ironically, the sequences showing the Druid revellers dancing with chainsaws and the alike aren't really horrific or disturbing at all, just silly, and the few gore scenes are clumsy and mishandled (don't even get me started on that silly drug-induced sexual encounter with the woman in the red robe). Where DARKLANDS is at its most effective is in the quieter conspiracy-type moments as the lead character of Frazer Truick investigates mysterious happenings and has run-ins with various unsavoury characters, and the finale in which he gradually comes to realise that he's caught in one huge trap.Craig Fairbrass may not be everyone's choice for such a leading role, but to be fair he acts more here than his usual hardman action hero-type role requires. His no-frills everyman-style acting works well, giving the film a likable and dependable lead. The good supporting cast includes Rowena King as a mysterious girlfriend, Jon Finch (FRENZY) as a mysterious councillor and plenty more suspicious faces. The end result is that DARKLANDS is a familiar film which is easily missed - but for fans looking for serious hard-edged horror with no easy answers, it may be worth a look. It is unsatisfying, and you feel like something is missing, but it stands unique as one of the few (only?) Welsh-set horror films out there.

Gary-161 *Some SPOILERS*Oops, here's one not to rodomontade about too loudly. I saw it in four chunks over three days so I lost the plot a bit. No matter, it's a patchwork of other people's plots anyway, not least a chainsaw assault that kills the film's tenuous credibility stone dead. This sort of hokum needs a certain other worldly style to it rather than the bog standard Brit-cop TV approach we get, albeit with extra blooded lamb cutlets.Does this matter? There is a fabulous amount of bonking in it. Craig Fairbrass, playing a journalist, is attractive and charming but grates with his less than beatific vocal style. He is the man with a bonking problem. The problem being he never gets a rest from it. So priapic is he that even in the rare moments of the film where he refrains from the afore-mentioned activity, that is unconcious, someone wakes him up and forces him to do it some more. Even when he's not doing it, he's dreaming about it. What really makes you turn against the film is he doesn't appear to enjoy it, apart from the first encounter on a living room floor with a women he's barely acquainted with. In one memorable scene he is serviced by this women in the most energetic display of rumpy pumpy since 'Last Tango In Paris', only to be forced to admit that he had not reached the peak, so to speak. We, the audience, are astonished. After all that, the earth should have moved for a paraplegic. In fairness, Mr Fairbrass has a great deal on his mind, not least the fact that certain inhabitants of Wales seem to sport eyeliner until well into their sixties, and that's just the men. Also, a sinister Detective Inspector that is the bane of his life is wearing an outfit not seen since Roger De Bris's assistant in 'The Producers'. How does he get away with being dressed like that down the nick? Dark forces are certainly afoot but seeing as Mr Fairbrass is permanently horizontal without clothes, how is he going to find out? In an amazing sequence, he is forced into another energetic round of 'hows-your-father?' By a bunch of slavering pagans on a make shift altar. Goodness, this low budget film is definately worth a deferred payment deal, but is Mr Fairbrass grateful? Does the earth move for him this time? Sadly, the painful and protracted gurning he displays suggests he is experiencing a vodka enema rather than the overdue release we are expecting from him. There is a reason for all this preoccupation with procreation, not least the lack of anything else to do in Wales. However, the knowledge of this is likely to set back the careful rehabilitation, nay acceptance of paganism ventured on such shows like 'Buffy, the Vampire Slayer'.Overall, I can't see the point of this film or British films in general. Lets face it, the Americans do this sort of thing better and we'd be better suited spending time trying to sort out our NHS, which incidently gets treated with an almost uncanny documentary realism in 'Darklands'. Poor Mr Fairbrass is in hospitable after a dog bite, forcing him to be horizontal without any frenzied sexual activity for once. Goodness, how will he cope? A doctor walks in with two burly minders, squeezing a huge hypordermic and promptly attacks him. In a hilarious 'Carry On' sequence, Mr Fairbrass is chased along hospital corridors in a wheelchair, still pulling faces and looking thoroughly miserable. I'm was just thankful to see him sitting down. After all that bedroom activity he's a man that certainly needs the rest.

comet.com-2 Not for nothing has Julian Richards' assured debut been dubbed the Welsh 'Wicker Man'. The writer-director readily acknowledges it's debt to the 1973 horror classic. In his least action orientated role to date - Craig Fairbrass plays Frazer Truick, a Welsh-born, London raised journo whose investigations into a young steelworkers death suggest links between the industrial 'accident', fervent nationalist politician David Keller (Jon Finch) and an uppity group of Celtic neo-pagans. Truick's nose for a story and lust for the dead girl's beautiful sister, trainee journo Rachel Morris (Rowena King), soon have him knee deep in desecrated churches, slaughtered pigs, crazy priests and a revivalist political conspiracy. Anyone familiar with 'The Wicker Man' or 'Rosemary's Baby' will quickly guess that what Truick thinks is a light at the end of the tunnel is in fact an oncoming train. That said, what the film lacks in narrative riginality, it makes up for in imaginative execution, despite the limitations imposed by a £500,000 budget. Richards' confident direction and cinematographer Zoran Djordjevic's atmospheric visuals are complemented by a score that effectively blends Test Department's percussive industrial noise with gentler Welsh folk songs. By juxtaposing the scary intensity of ancient pagan rituals with the grim beauty of a modern post-industrial landscape, 'Darklands' draws upon evocative pre-christian imagery while also hinting at a more serious socio-economic subtext. Together with 'Twin Town' and 'House Of America' this confirms the recent revival in Welsh film-making. ------------------------------------------

annaro-2 SURPRISINGLY diverting horror thriller set in Wales and prompting a terrific performance from Cliffhanger's Craig Fairbrass as a reporter lured into a mire of pagan rituals and the occult by svelte 'trainee journalist' Rowena King. Before he knows it, he's up to his neck in pigs blood and human sacrifices. The pace builds relentlessly till he's caught - literally - on a one-way train to hell and damnation!