Rent Dark Feed (2013)

Familiar but enjoyable - mild spoilers ... - Dark Feed review by NP

The very first scene of ‘Dark Feed’ made me wince. Involving a lip-ring and a mirror, it ensured I was watching behind partially closed fingers. There’s a later scene involving a stapler that had a similar effect on me – not bad for a wizened old horror fanatic like myself. Of course, the rest of the film could not hope to match these scenes, but despite an obvious low budget and some inexperienced actors, there’s a lot to enjoy here. Sometimes you are just in the mood to watch a crew of silly youngsters getting slaughtered.

Of course, the plot is as you might imagine from reading the premise. A group of young movie-makers collectively think it might be a good idea to film in a creepy old disused asylum. What do you think is going to happen? Whatever is behind the subsequent descent into blood and insanity is never comprehensively explained – some theories are touched upon and then summarily forgotten. Also, there are a whole lot of characters, most of which you never really get to know. I liked the special-effects guy, he had an element of death-rock craziness about him before things had even begun. I was willing both Mitch (Daniel Berger-Jones) and diva Rachel (Rebecca Whitehurst) to succumb to something dark and horrible. The writer of the amateur film being made (within this story) Chris (Andy Rudick) is the most likeable – everyone seems to pick on him, so he is immediately endearing.

There are problems with pacing here, and some explanation regarding the ‘dark feed’ of the title could have been more comprehensive (unless I missed it), but really, the atmosphere of the sprawling yet claustrophobic building is what sells this – kudos to directors/writers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen for that. Some will mourn the lack of CGI or excess of gore, but it is pointless to criticise a low-budget project like this for not containing Hollywood theatrics. The fact is, films like this are being made and put together with a passion lacking in some more expensive production-line cinema-fillers. And that will never not be a good thing.