Dark Chamber

R0 NTSC

Shock-O-Rama Cinema

Dark Chamber may be a low budget film but don’t let that fool you. What it may lack in finesse it makes it with an impressive plot, suspenseful mood and surprisingly superior acting.

Justin has spent the last five years living with his mother. He has been working overtime to cover her bills and yet she spends her days in a drug induced haze. He finally decides he has had enough, leaves her a note and moves in with his detective father. The house of his childhood is not as he remembers; the upstairs section has been converted into units and rented out. The occupants are all suitably bizarre: two sisters, one of which is a massage therapist (offering a bit more on the side) and the other a mentally disturbed girl with an obsession with fire, an sickly old man who seems to never come out of his room and whose only pleasure is the occasional prostitute and a couple where the husband is an aggressive frustrated writer and the wife seems bruised and abused.

Justin tries to make friends with a young girl who he meets one day outside the house. He is a religious young man and yet on a dark night falls for her charms and has a one night fling. She becomes immediately obsessive and one wonders if this is going to be a “Fatal Attraction” film as she stalks him relentlessly. However, one morning Justin finds her dead in a garbage bag outside his house but before he can report it is kidnapped and left in a garage. When he returns home he finds his father has been investigated a series of murders by a group called the Black Circle, a supposed Satanic cult

Justin believes one of the occupants of the units is the killer and so begins surveillance using hidden cameras, hence the insight we gain into their lives. An intriguing aside is that while they are installing the cameras they find wires of what look like a previous surveillance system in the walls, is this significant? We only find out later.

As Justin and his friends monitor the units we are drawn into all manner of personal conflicts, potential violence and, at times, voyeurism. As the film progresses the danger to Justin and his friends increases as the identity of the killer creeps into view, the final revelation is well done and the films ability to tie all the threads together is accomplished.

The character development, acting and dialogue is solid, especially for a low budget film. The look of Dark Chamber creates an eerie and moody feel which is assisted by a powerfully melancholic soundtrack.

Dark Chamber is an interesting film which has elements of Fatal Attraction, Rear Window and even Panic Room, the fact that it cannot be easily pigeon-holed makes it even more effective. This is a movie with no nudity and minimal violence and yet one that packs enough suspense and mood to create a very edgy work of cinema.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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