Dark Rising is a movie that attempts to be one of those B-movies that’s awesomely bad on purpose in attempt to be funny, and/or to become a cult hit. However, this is a tough thing to acheive and usually doesn’t happen intentionally, and when a film does try intentionally it tends to fial miserably. This is exactly where Dark Rising ends up -it’s a movie that is just… awful. Proletaria-Tron reviewed this movie over at Examiner and you can check out his full thoughts on the movie there!
The male lead character of Jason (Landy Cannon) is introduced to us as a guy whining to a little girl about his ex-fiancé, Jasmine (Vanessa James), not wanting to marry him. Turns out she’s a lesbian and throughout the movie this is shoved down our throats, to the point of a lesbian sex scene that doesn’t fit the movie at all. Jason isn’t likeable at all. I was hoping he would die from the start. He’s awkward, whiny, and unfunny and never really redeems himself in any way. He’s also dressed like 1994 and looks like he’s around 40 years old. Jason’s buddy Ricky (Jason Reso or Christian Cage in the wrestling world) is along for the camping trip too, he’s slightly better than Jason at acting but I think that’s due to his long career as a professional wrestler (a 6 sided cage match of his is a special feature). He’s mostly around to be funny -but isn’t- and is mostly just creepy and also looks to be about 40 years old. The problem with that is all the girls look like they are in their 20’s. Jasmine and Jason are supposed to be high school sweethearts, and they aren’t even close to the same age. Marlene (Haley Shannon) is Jasmines lesbian girlfriend and basically is only around to take her shirt off and then die.