[yasr_overall_rating]
A genre-defying mixture of horror, sci-fi, myth, mystery and thrills told as four interlocking tales in one intelligent anthology. Ghosts, spirits, creatures, demons and more from the paranormal world collide with rational curiosity.
The release of “Paranormal Activity” in the fall of 2008 to widespread acclaim and smashing box office success spawned dozens of new small budget “found footage” horror films. A descendent of the similar 1999 film “The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal” pushed found footage to the forefront of the horror genre. Mediocre amateur filmmakers, now armed with the knowledge that they too could produce the next multi-million dollar hit with only a cheap camera and shoestring budget, began churning out equally mediocre “Paranormal” and “Blair Witch” clones. “The Dark Tapes,” while not an unmitigated disaster like many of its cinematic cousins, is the latest in a long line of weak horror offerings.
Credit where it’s due: “The Dark Tapes” does offer a new take on the found footage genre by telling its story via three separate tapes with different characters and demons. Unfortunately, the tapes themselves rely on all-too-familiar horror tropes. The first feels like a frame-for-frame remake of “Paranormal Activity,” with a young couple in a new house being haunted by malevolent spirits. The second – and worst – is a sexploitation adventure featuring two lesbians. The third, and most interesting, follows a girl who is kidnapped by demons every night after a confrontation goes wrong at a party. The three mini-narratives are tied together by one large, overarching narrative that manages to tie things together quite nicely. Nevertheless, other than the science fiction-influenced romp in tape three, there is little originality in either the stories or performances themselves. This is a shame because directors Vincent Guastini and Michael McQuown had developed a strong framing device.
Taken by itself, “The Dark Tapes” isn’t terrible – and maybe it’s unfair to fault it because of the sheer torrent of similar films, but it’s also exceedingly difficult not to do so. As I have written about ad nauseam when reviewing horror films, the genre has experienced a steep decline since its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Found footage should have been a bridge to the next generation of great horror pictures driven by special effects or even virtual reality – and the genre may yet get there – but instead, it has become a well that filmmakers keep returning to, even though it has clearly run dry. In their book “Algorithms to Live By,” computer scientists Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths present a mathematical algorithm called “explore and exploit.” It’s admittedly complex, but the real-life implication of this algorithm is that industries experiencing irreversible decline no longer “explore” for new opportunities but rather “exploit” existing money-makers, even when they no longer generate the return on investment that they used to. Make of it what you will, but it is clear to me that the horror film industry, and perhaps the larger film industry as a whole (see the bevy of sequels and superhero tent-pole flicks) is plunging headlong into a pit from which it will not return.
In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the author laments that “there is no new thing under the sun.” So it is with “The Dark Tapes.” The production value is fine, and there are some good scares, but there is nothing much new other than the addition of a more original framing device. If found footage is your thing, don’t let my review discourage you. You will probably enjoy this film. But if you are craving more original fare, then I am afraid your journey must continue.
Now available on VOD
