When Adam Waltz wins a walk-on role in the latest low budget schlockfest starring scream queen Cassie Blue, he doesn't expect to end up in a romance with the starlet, and he certainly doesn't expect to be a murder suspect or to be seeing ghosts. But well, this bit part on "Pirate Wench" is going to lead to all those things in pretty short order.
Dark Reel is not a good film, but it's kind of engagingly stupid one in many ways. Like, in a film where multiple "scream queen" characters get killed by a masked killer, why on Earth is it that none of them scream? Heck, in one case the film actually sets up that she won't be heard if she does, as the only other person around has music blaring out of the headphones he is wearing, yet she still doesn't make any effort to call for help.
Or there's the way that it tries to stitch together both a ghost film and a spree killer film, ultimately reveals a strong connection between the two elements, and yet never really seems to make them - or really care about making them - gel together in a logical fashion. Or its many attempts to be 'funny' or to have 'witty' dialogue that are mostly just perplexingly weird and silly moments.
With some extensive re-writes and a much stronger leading man (Edward Furlong peaked in his very first role and has only headed downhill after that, poor chap), this could actually have been a snappy little slasher. The killer's got a good "look", and the ultimate motivations behind the slashings is sound enough (though let down by the execution of its reveal). Plus (Furlong aside) the cast are a dependable crew of B-listers who could actually have made a better script work.
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