So Dark – review

Director: Al Lougher


Release Date: 2013


Contains spoilers


Picking up from where So Pretty ended, this continuation of vampire Sean’s (Jeremy Palko, Vampire Diaries season 4) story widens its vista. Not only in the fact that it is (whilst still a short) over twice the length but also in that the action has moved from the train and the opening shot is a panoramic view of Miami.

Russo and Wilburn

Agent Wilburn (Keri Maletto) has just intercepted the Miami PD call re the murder on the train and has swooped in to interview the suspect that cops Russo (Todd Bruno) and Crowley (Wil J. Jackson) have picked up. They are befuddled by the FBI interest given that, whilst the murder was bloody, the suspect stayed on the train, was picked up at the next stop, offered no resistance and has not lawyered up. The last fact does not surprise Wilburn. As per her orders they have put him in the basement – an area without cameras or windows. Also in the station is one of the passengers from the train, Violet (Julie Kendall).

the cross vibrates

Wilburn is not her real name and she is part of a band of hunters (attached to the government it would appear). In her case she has a cross (which vibrates on the table when too close to Sean) and a UV torch (that can burn him). He has allowed himself to be captured and Wilburn’s picture is on his wall at home. In the So Pretty review I mentioned a potential inference of telepathy but this film lets us know that he studies his potential victims, choosing the worst to take for tea.

vampire in the box

I don’t want to spoil too much but we do hear about “the boxes”, experimental holding cells where vampires are placed, starved and observed. We see this in action with the vampire (Aaron Goldenberg) gnawing at his own wrists. Every day the door is unlocked for a short period when the sun is at its zenith and the hunters wait to see how long it will be before the captive commits suicide rather than starve.

Sean, an anti-hero

I was struck, again, by how well shot these shorts are and was also taken with how they have made Sean brutal and yet sympathetic. An anti-hero who has videos of sunrise to watch in the safety of his darkened room. I also liked the fact that the location actually felt like a police station rather than other films where a desk in a hotel room would be used to pass off the location. Perhaps there wasn’t the same natural repartee between the leads as we got in the first film but, of course, the characters are antagonistic to each other and both leads were great.

I sincerely hope we get to see more of Sean’s world. 7 out of 10. So Dark is embedded below.

The imdb page is here.