Dark Country (2009)

A stylized thriller in the story telling vain of The Twilight Zone, this film serves you up a value meal, but regrettably forgot your fries.

In his directorial debut, Thomas Jane (Hung, The Mist) also stars as Dick, a man who wakes up a newly wed in Las Vegas and can't remember how or why. Accepting his nuptial fate, and along with his new bride Gina (Lauren German, Hostel: Part II), they head out across the desert at night to start their new life together. A few wrong turns later, they come across a one car wreck where they pull a bloodied, disfigured man into their car and race to save his life. "But their decision to save the man becomes increasingly regrettable when he turns on them, forcing the newlyweds to do the unthinkable. In a blur of paranormal chaos, the couple must take drastic measures to cover up their actions from the local police (Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy), ultimately leading each character to an inescapable fate."

I'm not sure I've really fully digested this movie or not, but here goes. I like Thomas Jane, really I do, but seriously? Perhaps throwing some others into the two leads may have made a difference, or maybe because of the style of the movie, it was supposed to be like that... but the acting, I just didn't feel it. Though I must confess that was an excellent way to make an ice cube disappear ;) I really loved the style of the movie, very Sin City like, however... it was also extremely distracting. Too many angles of the same shot with different lighting and whatnot, it completely disconnected me. For the first 15 minutes it was interesting, after that, too much. The story was pretty cool, but definitely something you could have watched in an hour episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, with commercials.

5.1/10

Rated: R
88 mins