The Dark Tapes

Last updated

The Dark Tapes
The Dark Tapes poster.jpg
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed byMichael McQuown
Vincent J. Guastini (To Catch a Demon)
Written byMichael McQuown
Produced by
  • Michael McQuown
  • Nicola Odeku
  • Amon Mahmud
  • Haldane Morris
  • Vincent J. Guastini
Starring
CinematographyMichael McQuown
Matt Shapira
Edited byMichael McQuown
Production
company
Thunder Road Incorporated
Distributed byEpic Pictures Group
Release dates
  • April 22, 2016 (2016-04-22)(Phoenix Film Festival)
  • March 17, 2017 (2017-03-17)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$65,000 [1]

The Dark Tapes is a 2016 American found footage anthology horror film written and directed by Michael McQuown with Vincent J. Guastini directing the segment titled To Catch a Demon. The feature film consists of four segments To Catch A Demon, The Hunters & The Hunted, Cam Girls and Amanda's Revenge with a short opening sequence titled Wrap Around.

Contents

Plot

The film is presented as an anthology of short horror films, built into a frame narrative which acts as its own short horror film. Each short film is linked together with the concept of found footage.

Wrap Around

Sam and Marie find blood and a mess in their small theatrical playhouse and blame their friend.

To Catch a Demon - Part A

Dr. Martin Callahan and his graduate student Nicole believe that night terrors are a result of the time dilation humans experience during REM sleep, which allows "transdimensional entities", or what some people call demons, to become visible. They attempt to perform an experiment to catch these entities with their hired cameraman Jason filming using a special high-speed camera, which can both record and play back slow-motion video.

The Hunters & the Hunted

David and Karen move into a new home and almost immediately begin to hear mysterious sounds coming from the roof and from around the house. They decide to record the events, which include seemingly unexplainable phenomena such as objects moving on their own. After David is attacked by an unseen force, leaving a visible handprint on his back, they call in paranormal investigators. The investigators, consisting of the lead investigator Susan, director Cameron, and cameraman Geoff, arrive and set up equipment and recording devices to collect information. They leave the house and let the cameras run overnight. As they get ready for bed, Karen, and then David, are attacked by an unseen force. The investigators review the recordings from the previous night and see a girl standing in a hallway behind Geoff.

David and Karen reveal that they had previously lost their daughter Ashen, and this prompts the investigators to hold a seance to call out to their daughter. Ashen seemingly confirms her presence in the house. Distraught, Karen leaves the scene. Susan deduces that Ashen is stuck in this dimension in the downstairs floor of the house, and another spirit is barring her from leaving. She asks Cameron to take infrared scans of all the rooms and takes David and Geoff downstairs.

Left alone, Cameron continues taking scans of the rooms while also recording his activities with an infrared camera. Hearing a sound, he goes downstairs and finds both Susan and Geoff dead in a bathroom. He sees Ashen and runs upstairs to the living room, where he is struck down.

Later, it is revealed that David and Karen are serial murderers who routinely kill such paranormal investigators, and that the whole setup was a sham. Ashen enters the living room, and assisted by David, stabs the unconscious Cameron in the back for her 'first kill.' The camera records Cameron succumbing to his death.

To Catch a Demon - Part B

The researchers' first attempt catches fleeting images of an entity. During their second attempt they apply a small dose of radiation on the room, and the same entity attacks Martin and sticks tentacles down his throat, using him to communicate to Nicole and Jason. Nicole and Jason lose consciousness as they attempt to flee.

Cam Girls

Caitlin, a cam girl in a lesbian relationship, video chats with her friend telling him about unexplained blackouts after going out with her girlfriend Sindy. Caitlin says she did things she could not explain; things she would never do sober. Her friend advises her to drink less, and everything should be fine. Sindy returns home and the two prepare for a special cam session where one member from a group chat will receive a free private show. Sindy asks Caitlin if she can convince her selection to cut himself, just a little bit. Sindy selects Gerry, a mild-mannered overweight man. Sindy walks off screen and Caitlin begins flirting with Gerry. She asks him to give her a video tour of his house. As he gives Caitlin the tour, unexplained flashes of gore are seen on the video screens. Suddenly, Caitlin requests that Gerry cut his hand to satisfy a fetish of hers, and he does. After that, she asks Gerry to slit his throat. Gerry, as if bound by an external force, cuts his throat while muttering that he doesn't want to die.

The scene then opens to Sindy and Cailtin standing over Gerry's body. It is revealed that they are both vampires. Cailtin offers the body to Sindy, who says that she is trapped within her body and has remained unsatisfied until now. The camera cuts to black as they both start feasting on Gerry's body.

To Catch a Demon - Part C

Nicole and Jason regain consciousnees and see Martin unharmed. Martin informs them they are trapped in a different time dilation due to the experiment, and that the area may have different flows of time, keeping them trapped there in a time dilation bubble where the outside world seems frozen and they are invisible to others, just like the entities usually are. Martin thinks he can reverse the time dilation. Just as he is about to do so, Jason attempts to grab his high-speed camera and is trapped on the periphery of the bubble, dividing his body in halves between two dimensions. He spouts blood from his mouth and dies shortly after.

Amanda's Revenge

Amanda talks directly to the camera about being abducted and kidnapped for four months and states her intention of exacting revenge on her captors. Four months earlier, during a party, Amanda's friend Josh tells Ryan, Amanda's childhood best friend, that he saw two men carry an unconscious Amanda into a room. Ryan and Josh break into the room, subdue the molesters, and due to quick action appear to have prevented a rape from occurring. However, the next morning Amanda walks out in a trance suggesting she was violated in unimaginable ways. Suddenly the entire house quakes and Amanda sleepwalks back to her room, only to awaken with no memory of the incident. Even stranger, Ryan and Josh realize that there was no reported earthquake and everything seems fine outside.

A month later Amanda calls her friends over to watch her sleep at night. Something is wrong with Amanda and she's getting worse. However, instead of staying awake, everyone mysteriously passes out and the camera glitches out. In the morning, the friends are awoken by Amanda's screams. They rush to her, and she says that her plan didn't work.

Later, Amanda confides in Ryan, who is her childhood best friend, that something unexplainable has been happening in her life. She shows him that she can perform telekinesis, which both intrigues and worries Ryan.

A few days later, Amanda calls Ryan to a secluded cabin in the woods. She reveals that she feels like some entity is transporting her to a different dimension every night, and wishes to neutralize it. She says that the entities neutralize anything electronic, including cameras. So she plans on recording them with a vintage wind-up camera and a wax recorder. She has also set up various traps around the cabin to hurt the entity.

At night, an entity visits Amanda and raises her body up. However, one of the traps triggers and kills it.

A month later, with everything seemingly normal, Amanda and Ryan go to sleep keeping their video call on. Suddenly Ryan's room starts to shake violently.

To Catch a Demon - Part D

With Jason dead, Martin and Nicole plan to perform the experiment one more time, now with a higher dose of radiation. The entity materializes and Martin confronts it. Seeing Nicole hesitant, Martin explains to her that he's already dead in the other dimension because of the entity. Nicole promptly applies the radiation dose and falls unconscious.

A while later, she wakes up alone in the theater. She picks up the camera and goes outside, to find Sam and Marie seemingly frozen. She realizes that she has expanded the time dilation bubble and leaves the scene. In normal time, Sam and Marie enter the theater.

Cast

Release

The film premiered on April 22, 2016 at The Phoenix Film Festival and was released March 17, 2017 in the United States. It played in multiple festivals from 2016 to February 2017, and was picked up for US Distribution by Epic Pictures Group. The film was released theatrically on April 17, 2017 in select theaters, and is available internationally on all VOD platforms as of April 18, 2017. As of April 2020, it is also available for free on Amazon Prime in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as Tubi, Vudu, Crackle, Xumo, Fandango Now and Hoopla. [2]

Reception

The Dark Tapes received mostly positive reviews. It holds an 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews. [3] Bradley Gibson of Film Threat gave the film an 8 out of 10 saying "this is effective, mysterious, and vibey millennial horror". [4] Ryan Morris of Film Inquiry said the film was "fun, scary and consistently tense". [5] Steve Barton of Dread Central gave the film a positive review saying "ends up doing more right than it does wrong". [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Pays</span> British actress

Amanda Pays is an English interior designer, actress, and television presenter.

<i>The Entity</i> 1982 American film

The Entity is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Sidney J. Furie, and written by Frank De Felitta, who adapted his 1978 novel of the same name. The film stars Barbara Hershey as a single mother in Los Angeles who is raped and tormented by an invisible assailant.

<i>Embrace of the Vampire</i> 1995 film by Anne Goursaud

Embrace of the Vampire is a 1995 American direct-to-video erotic horror film directed by Anne Goursaud. It stars Alyssa Milano as Charlotte, a chaste girl who is haunted by a vampire played by Martin Kemp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrienne King</span> American actress

Adrienne King is an American actress and artist. She made her film debut in the television film Inherit the Wind (1965)—followed by uncredited roles in Between the Lines (1977), Saturday Night Fever (1977), and Hair (1979).

<i>Schools Out</i> (1992 film) 1992 television film based on the Degrassi franchise

School's Out is a Canadian drama television film based on the Degrassi teen drama franchise created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. It was directed by Hood and written by Yan Moore, based on a story by Moore, Schuyler and Hood. It aired on CBC Television on January 5, 1992, and served as a finale to the series Degrassi High and its predecessor Degrassi Junior High, which are collectively known as the Degrassi Classic era of the franchise.

Jigsaw (<i>Saw</i> character) Fictional character from the Saw franchise

John Kramer is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Saw franchise. Jigsaw made his debut in the first film of the series, Saw, and appears in all subsequent sequels, with the exception of Spiral, in which he is only mentioned and featured in photographs. He is portrayed by American actor Tobin Bell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Young</span> Fictional character from the Saw franchise

Amanda Young is a fictional character and an antagonist of the Saw franchise. She first appeared in Saw (2004) as a victim to one of serial killer Jigsaw's traps, in which she was portrayed by Shawnee Smith. The character's role was expanded in the following films, where she served as an apprentice to Jigsaw, aiming to succeed him after his death. Created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell, Amanda has appeared in five of ten films in the series. The character has subsequently been represented in various other media, including video games and comic books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy the Puppet</span> Puppet character in the Saw franchise

Billy is a puppet that has appeared in the Saw franchise. It was used by John "Jigsaw" Kramer, often appearing on a television screen, or occasionally in person, to describe the details of the traps and the means by which the test subjects could survive.

<i>Britannic</i> (film) 2000 television film by Brian Trenchard-Smith

Britannic is a 2000 spy television film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. The film is a fictional account of the sinking of the ship of the same name off the Greek island of Kea in November 1916; it features a German agent sabotaging her while she is serving as a hospital ship for the British Army during World War I. It stars Edward Atterton and Amanda Ryan, with Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Daniels, John Rhys-Davies, and Bruce Payne as costars. It first premiered on cable network Fox Family and was then broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4.

The Australian Shadows Awards are annual literary awards established by the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) in 2005 to honour the best published works of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian/New Zealand/Oceania resident in the previous calendar year.

<i>Saw V</i> 2008 film by David Hackl

Saw V is a 2008 horror film directed by David Hackl, in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. It is the fifth installment in the Saw film series and a sequel to 2007's Saw IV. The film stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Julie Benz, Carlo Rota, and Meagan Good.

<i>Paranormal Entity</i> 2009 American film

Paranormal Entity is a 2009 American supernatural horror film written, directed by and starring Shane Van Dyke and produced by The Asylum in 2009. It is one of many films dubbed as a "mockbuster", a movie designed to capitalize on the success of a more popular film. Paranormal Entity is a knockoff of the successful low-budget horror film Paranormal Activity. The film was followed by indirect sequels 8213: Gacy House in 2010, Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes in 2011, and 100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck in 2012. The film's premise is that of a series of allegedly factual surveillance videos documenting the downward spiral and eventual supernatural rape and murder of a woman named Samantha Finley.

<i>Night of the Lepus</i> 1972 film by William F. Claxton

Night of the Lepus is a 1972 American science fiction horror film directed by William F. Claxton and produced by A.C. Lyles. Based upon Russell Braddon's 1964 science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit, the plot concerns an infestation of mutated rabbits.

<i>V/H/S</i> 2012 American found footage horror anthology film

V/H/S is a 2012 American found footage horror anthology film and the first installment in the V/H/S franchise created by Brad Miska and Bloody Disgusting and produced by Miska and Roxanne Benjamin. It features a series of found footage shorts written and directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and the filmmaking collective Radio Silence.

<i>Dark Skies</i> (2013 film) 2013 American film

Dark Skies is a 2013 American science fiction horror film written and directed by Scott Stewart, produced by Jason Blum under his Blumhouse Productions banner, and starring Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo and J. K. Simmons.

<i>V/H/S/2</i> 2013 found footage horror anthology film

V/H/S/2 is a 2013 found footage horror anthology film produced by Bloody Disgusting and Roxanne Benjamin. The second installment in the V/H/S franchise, it comprises four found footage segments linked together by a fifth frame narrative. V/H/S/2 features a largely different group of directors: Jason Eisener, Gareth Evans, Timo Tjahjanto, Eduardo Sánchez, and Gregg Hale, and franchise returnees Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard.

<i>Amityville: The Awakening</i> 2017 film directed by Franck Khalfoun

Amityville: The Awakening is a 2017 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Franck Khalfoun and starring Bella Thorne, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cameron Monaghan, Mckenna Grace, Thomas Mann, Taylor Spreitler, Jennifer Morrison, and Kurtwood Smith. It is the tenth installment of the Amityville film series and a direct sequel/metafilm taking place in the "real world" outside of the continuity of the series which establishes The Amityville Horror (1979), the sequels from 1982 to 1996, and the 2005 remake of the original film as fiction. Its plot follows a teenager who moves into 112 Ocean Avenue with her family, who shortly find themselves haunted by a demonic entity using her brain-dead twin brother's body as a vessel.

<i>Altergeist</i> 2014 American film

Altergeist is a 2014 science fiction horror film that was written and directed by Tedi Sarafian. The film had its world premiere on 25 August 2014 at the London FrightFest Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 7 November 2014. The film follows a group of paranormal investigators that find that trying to discover proof of the supernatural might be the death of them.

<i>The Magnus Archives</i> Fictional horror podcast

The Magnus Archives is a horror fiction podcast written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall, and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrated the podcast in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly appointed Head Archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute—an institution based in London centered on research into the paranormal.

References

  1. ↑ "One of the better horror anthologies in recent times. The Dark Tapes – movie review". Horror World & Reviews. April 24, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ Miska, Brad. "Turn On 'The Dark Tapes' Trailer and Poster", Bloody Disgusting , Los Angeles, 7 March 2017. Retrieved on 18 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "The Dark Tapes". Rotten Tomatoes . April 18, 2017.
  4. ↑ Gibson, Bradley (May 5, 2017). "The Dark Tapes". Film Threat . Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  5. ↑ Morris, Ryan (April 17, 2017). "THE DARK TAPES: The Best Found Footage Film in Years". Film Inquiry. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  6. ↑ Barton, Steve (April 18, 2017). "Dark Tapes, The (2017)". Dread Central. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.