Well friends, what to say about this one. Brain Damage Films brings us Dylan O'leary's This Darkness. Yet another blood sucking tale that involves the infamous Van Helsing lineage. Can there ever be too many updates on what the Van Helsing spawn have been up to lately? Unfortunately, I think maybe we've barked up the wrong family tree on this one.

Our tale opens up with a fairly gruesome scene involving a mother and child, who we later discover to be Dr. Van Helsing VII's (Dylan O'Leary) wife and daughter. The movie then flashes back to two days prior, where I'm guessing we are supposed to learn what led up to these ghastly events. Unfortunately our tale meanders around with no true indication of a solid plot and a handful of pleasant but sporadic scenes where the vampires attack (in broad daylight) and at times shred their victims to pieces. So we get the idea that there are vampires running amuck but still no real idea of the story line. We also get the idea through the course of things that Dr. Van Helsing is a genetic engineer working on a top secret serum that is supposed to combat all sorts of nasty little viruses, including AIDS. Our doctor is a very important guy but I found myself asking what does this have to do with the vampires that are running around? Ok, so It takes the bulk of the movie but we finally come to the truth of the matter and the plot (hurray for the plot!) when Tarquin (David Everritt), the lord of the undead comes to Van Helsing and demands a Queen. The good doctor has twenty-four hours to make a serum that will create a queen vampire. To prove his power Tarquin kills Van Helsing's wife and daughter. Ok, now we're back where we started. It took a while but we made it. As it turns out, Van Helsing has been lying about his project. The serum he is really creating is not to cure disease but to make the one who takes it immortal. If you're immortal you no longer have to worry about disease, right? Now the doctor has to decide whether to help create Tarquin's queen or to try to find a way to destroy the vampires.

The basic idea for this movie isn't a bad one. You take one of the most famous names in vampire lore and you build an up to date story around it. Thank God the Van Helsing clan keeps breading! Otherwise how would we have a decent vampire story? So, you don't get points for originality in that department but if you're lucky, you get to build onto the vampire legacy. That's a pretty cool thing to strive for if you love vampire lore. Unfortunately, it becomes really easy to get lost in the great vampire shuffle with this approach. The movie started out well with an impressive opening scene that really grabs you. I can't fault any movie that opens up with three deaths, especially when one of them is a shower scene! After the opening though, the movie slows to a crawl and we hear all kinds of genetic jargon with only a few promising moments involving death and dismemberment to spice it up in between. For the most part, I really didn't have much of an idea what was going on.

Another important aspect to a great vampire story is how you use the lore. Believe me there's are many to choose from. It's what most fans of vampire movies look for. What kind of vampire are we dealing with, how can they be killed, and what rules are we using to play the game? In this movie, there are too many different characteristics in play. These vampires are running around in daylight. Some can be shot. Some can get sick. There wasn't a whole lot of form when it came to building a decent vampire character and rules were pretty much non-existent.

There were a few things that I really did like however. Some of the make up effects were quite excellent. There was obviously a decent amount of time spent on making wounds of all sorts and they looked great! The vampire attack scenes also worked rather well. There were a few inventive flashback scenes, and I liked that they were done with a sepia filter. The effect was a good one. This was much more effective than just using a black and white shot or a slow motion effect. Performances were above average as well, there were a few times that the dialog didn't flow all that great but it had more to do with timing then poor acting abilities.

I found the soundtrack to be fairly effective, but unfortunately the sound quality itself left a lot to be desired. It wasn't at all stable and there were times when the soundtrack stepped all over the dialog and made it really difficult to hear. It made for a real distraction within the movie.

Generally, This Darkness had some really great things going for it. The time and care that was put into making the movie look good was outdone by the fact that the story line was extremely confusing. There were just too many things going on that didn't connect to each other until the plot was finally revealed for what it really was. Unfortunately, the actual plot came a little to late in flick to keep me all that interested. Mr. O'Leary is definitely headed in the right direction though. Better luck next time!