Title: Straight into DarknessRelease Date: 06/06/2006
Label/Distributor: Universal
Rating: R (Restricted)
Retail Price: $19.98
Genre: Action & Adventure Director: Jeff Burr
Running Time: 94
DVD Video Options: Color, Dolby, Subtitled
DVD Audio Options: English, Original Language; English, Subtitled
UPC Code: 025193024527
Straight Into Darkness
By Buzz McClain -- Video Business, 4/24/2006
Story Line: In the final days of World War II, two AWOL American soldiers (LeGros, MacDonald) find themselves fighting for their lives against 60 Nazis with a tank. Holed up in an abandoned hotel with the U.S. soldiers are mutilated orphans trained to fight by their deacon (Warner).
Bottom Line: Long after the cannibal pastor has been left behind, and just before the legless boy skitters past on his hands, you begin to sense that this ain’t your father’s war movie. Writer/director Burr, a Full Moon graduate, successfully brings horror conventions to the war genre, beginning with a knot-inducing opening sequence in a minefield and ending with a rousingly depraved nighttime battle that asks the question, “What if the mutant kids from The Hills Have Eyes were the good guys?” Burr shoots the saga in a colorless, blanched palette that adds to the ominous atmosphere while covering up his budgetary limitations. He also makes the most of the Romanian countryside as a crater-covered WWII battleground, while Michael Convertino’s minimalist score heightens the gothic mood. The cast gives its all, with Warner leading the way as a gruff Frenchman who says a mouthful without speaking, which is actually a pretty fair way of describing the film as a whole.
Action
Color, R (mature themes, language, gore, violence, brief nudity), 94 min., DVD only $19.98
DVD: director’s commentary, featurette
Street: June 6, Prebook: May 1
First Run: DVD premiere
Cast: James LeGros (TV’s Law & Order), Scott MacDonald (Jarhead), David Warner (Ladies in Lavender), Linda Thorson (Touch of Pink)
Director: Jeff Burr
SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL
