Dark Summer

Released By: Shout Factory
Released On: July 7, 2015
Director: Paul Solet
Cast:Keir Gilchrist, Maestro Harrell, Peter Stormare
Year: 2015


The Film:

Seventeen year-old Daniel is having a rough summer. He's been convicted of cyber-stalking classmate Mona, and placed under house arrest, ankle bracelet and all. Parole officer Stokes (Peter Stormare) lays down the rules; no alcohol, no drugs, no unaccompanied minors, and no access to the internet. His computer is confiscated to emphasize this point, but for some reason, the law is okay with leaving Daniel alone and unsupervised in the house as his deadbeat father and military mother are nowhere to be seen. Taking advantage of the lack of adults, Daniel wastes no time in breaking all of his conditions, having his underage friends Abby and Kevin over for some poolside dope-smoking. To the benefit of the teen stalker, his friends have also "buried a router" that ties into a live cable connection in a recently vacated nearby house, so he can rig up a computer system and get back online. While this might be seen as enabling the young stalker, all fears are put to rest during a conversation in which Daniel admits that he really, "just wanted to get to know her", and Abby assuring him that he "didn't really do anything", which has got to be one of the most irresponsible messages to send to teen viewers, but I digress.

After his friends bail for other responsibilities, Daniel fires up his internet connection to Skype with his mom, which never happens. Instead, he Skypes with Abby, who clearly has a feeling or two for the young man. Unfortunately for her best interests, their call is interrupted by a video chat request from Mona, the girl who Daniel is supposed to have no contact with. After a brief and cryptic conversation in which she seems apologetic, Mona does something completely unexpected and blows her brains out. A visit the next day from Stokes indicates that the police are aware that Mona committed suicide during a Skype call, and that they'll (hint hint) eventually find out who was on the other end. Despite Stokes' less-than-subtle intimations that he knows Daniel was the online witness, Stokes apparently sees no need to look in the next room to discover Daniels' computer, or the smartphone with charger, or the alcohol, or the lack of parents, and he goes off on his merry way.

This is where things start to go from bad to worse for Daniel, who begins to experience waking hallucinations of bugs, poltergeist-like activities, not to mention the visions of his dead classmate appearing in various rooms in the house. Fits of self-mutilation and loss of consciousness follow, and mysterious emails from Mona show up long enough to be read, but then delete themselves. Still somewhat convinced that Daniel's issues may be a result of his new prescription medication, Abby and Kevin help Daniel hold a seance after researching them for 2 minutes, and find out that there's an evil, vindictive presence in the house that isn't going to leave willingly. And since he can't leave the property for more than five seconds without violating the terms of his house arrest (because he hasn't violated them all, already), Daniel has no choice but to figure out what it wants and how to get rid of it.

Horror fans are a forgiving bunch. Jason came back because psychic energy raised him out of the lake after he was chained to the bottom and had his face mulched by a boat motor? Sure. A basket-cased conjoined twin communicates telepathically with his brother? Alright. The list goes on. There's not a lot that I'm willing to forgive in Dark Summer. The plot holes are ridiculous. Underage kid under house arrest with no parents around? Right. That's just one of them. Huge, stupid plot holes. But even if we're willing to forgive the plot holes, the rest of the film is equally as inept. Even at eighty minutes, Dark Summer is far too long. The majority of the running time is Daniel stumbling around the house in a type of exaggerated slow-motion, while strobe lighting and jagged cuts, accompanied by an annoyingly grating score attempt to create an atmosphere that mirrors Daniel's state of mind. Which would work briefly, I'm sure, but it's used over and over and over again. Crackling electricity sound effects, sudden jump scares...this is amateur filmmaking at its finest. When Abby joins Daniel, we're treated to more of the same, except now SHE gets to wander around in confusion-land, and on top of that, we're treated to a ridiculous music video where people have the ability to float around underwater for 5 minutes. Yeah, it's a hallucination. Whatever.

But, maybe there's hope for the ending? Maybe some crazy twist or brilliant reveal will salvage the whole thing? No...the ending of Dark Summer is about as well thought out and pedantic as the rest of the film, a slow head shaker. Paul Solet may be a competent director, Michael Le may be a convincing writer, but none of that is on display here. Dark Summer is idiotic teen horror at it's most dumbed-down, worse than the supermodel jump-scare drek that Hollywood has been churning out for years now. It's nice when a new writer or director come along and set the standard on its ear, but brother, that ain't happening here.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Dark Summer comes to blu-ray in a 1.78:1 transfer that looks great...detail is sharp, black levels are good, and there are no visual issues that were noticeable. There's not too much of a range of colour in the film, relying mostly on darks, darks, and more darks, but clarity remains strong.

The DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 track fairs pretty well, with clear and consistent dialogue. This is a very bass-heavy track, utilizing the subwoofer often for weird little backward masking soundtrack cues, so prepare to adjust the volume for that. The score comes through effectively with frequent use of the surrounds.

First up on the list of extras is a commentary with Director Paul Solet. While he mostly talks about what's happening on screen and how wonderful or tricky the shots were, he does also occasionally discuss the film and the cast. If you liked the film, it's worth checking out.

Director Paul Solet Featurette (2:15) features the cast and crew talking about Paul and his work on the film. At such a short running time and using clips from the film, there's not a lot of information here.

A conversation with Peter Stormare (15:52) is definitely more interesting, with Stormare sharing his knowledge on the cast, working on the film, genre films in general, and his role as the parole officer.

The Kids: Cast Interviews (2:04) features some very short interviews, also interspersed with clips from the film. Like the Paul Solet featurette, this is a little too short to get anything worthwhile out of.

Atmosphere and Style (1:57) deals very briefly with the set design, and how they created, well, the atmosphere and style used in the film.

The Art of Dark Summer (13:38) is a more informative look at the set and costume design used in the film, featuring interviews with the people responsible for giving Dark Summer its look, right down to some of the smaller props that were used to dress the sets.

The Music of Dark Summer (8:37) features interviews with composer Austin Wintory, where he talks about the musical choices that he made for scoring the film.

A theatrical trailer is also included.

The Final Word:

Dark Summer is not a good film. It is not a good use of 80 minutes. You will not like yourself after you've finished watching it. It is garbage.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!