Janet (a solid and appealing performance by the fetching Jill Pierce) decides to visit her conservative family at their remote farmhouse located in the country. However, a vicious mystery killer spoils the family reunion by bumping off folks left and right.

Director Terence O'Hara keeps the standard, but still pretty enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a constant pace, stages the murder set pieces with stylish aplomb, pulls out the stirring stops at the exciting climax, and throws in some tasty gratuitous female nudity for trashy good measure. However, O'Hara crucially fails to generate much in the way of any essential tension or creepy atmosphere. The by-the-numbers script by Rick Pamplin and Robert W. Fisher trots out such endearingly cornball slice'n'dice clichés as the Killer Who Refuses to Die and that longtime favorite The Psycho Hiding in the Backseat of a Car. The acting is strictly so-so, with the only stand-outs being Aarin Teich as the geeky Perry, Jeff Arbaugh as likeable hero Steve, who sports an absolutely hideous mullet; Sara Lee Wade as foxy blonde tease Cindy, and John O'Connor as crusty grandpa Hodge. David A. Makin's slick cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. Jerry Grant's moody synthesizer score hits the shuddery spot. A decent diversion for hardcore knifekill movie fans.

DARKROOM is another low budget American horror/thriller produced by Nico Mastokaris after he moved to the USA. It generally plays out like a low rent slasher although it has a lot more talk and less action than many similar genre entries which focus on the kills first at the expense of the plot. A group of characters come together at a house for a family reunion, but it transpires that one of their number is a murderous loon looking for revenge for past crimes. A double murder in the opening scene sets the tone, but this and the rest of that which plays out is completely average. The characters are flat, the unknown cast are okay but nobody stands out, and as a whole it's quite light on the bloodshed and horror content. The killer's identity is a disappointment as well because they've gone for the least imposing character in the entire cast.

Waning - Do Not Watch The Trailer before the movie, unless you want to know the killer's identity beforehand!! Darkroom is set at a rural location where a family has gathered and an unknown (assuming you haven't watched the trailer) psycho with a passion for photography is on a brutal killing spree. Until very recently I had never heard of the film, it appears in none of my horror movie books. It was shot in under 2 weeks on a low budget and the acting is pretty amateur. We get the obligatory girl in the shower scene, though little nudity is seen, and whilst there is a sufficient body count the effects are nothing remarkable. Niko Mastorakis, who made the notorious (and bad) Island of Death, is producer and the film does have a part European Giallo look, the unknown glove wearing killer, the darkroom where the killer develops his photographs, etc. The most horrific thing on offer here is the character Steve and his prize winning mullet! I have scored this 5/10, partly down to the fact that I watched it on a really nice Blu-ray release, I love slasher movies and could happily watch them all day long, but your average horror fan may feel short changed by this entry.