Dark Enemy (1984) User Reviews

A roughly hewn low budget British gem

[jan_ulalume · 7/10 · 15 May 2010]

This low budget film is an interesting curio and although i look upon it with a certain sentimentality, i believe it has additional merit. I saw it as a child of around 4 and it left a big impression. Of course, the children (and teenagers) are the focal point of the film and the lead is a doe-eyed waif who gives a very decent, if slightly stilted performance. The acting on the most part is pretty good for a film of this type. The plot is straightforward but a little vague, however, together with the locations and sub story, a great sense of foreboding and isolation is produced and this is what, as a child, i locked unto and now being very much older i can still connect with.

The special effects are pretty bog standard but they frightened me years ago and there is still something stark and primitive about them (as though they knew what they had wasn't up to much so they made their use of it as condensed and pure as possible without unnecessary flair)and the depiction of the films ghouls.

If you can handle the problems associated with a low budget production this film is highly recommended and although i award it 7 out of ten to be pedantic in relation to the nature of this site it's a 10 out of 10 in my heart.

Know your enemy.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 21 July 2015]

After recently watching the excellent BBC satirical Comedy show The Thick of It again recently,I I decided to take a look at actor David Haig's IMDb page.Along with Haig's other TV work,I was surprised to spot a Post-Apocalypse movie,which led to me getting ready to step on enemy territory.

The plot:

Based in a woodland area in Wales,a tribe closely follows rules which allow them to enjoy the beautiful countryside and the vegetables grown in the area,but bans them from eating any "flesh" and also keeps them away from the "dark" areas,where ghostly Moonpeople and Moondogs dwell.

Living his entire life secluded in the tribe, Aron finds himself getting drawn to the "darkness",as a strange voice calls out his name.With the tribe leader having recently died,new leader Ash decides that a deputy tribe leader should be decided by sending Aaron and fellow tribe members on a rites of passage challenge.As he sets off for the challenge,Aron starts to step into the darkness,

View on the film:

Filmed on a very low-budget,the synch score from David Hewson covers the film in a chilling atmosphere,as the waves from Hewson's score open up the deadly secrets hiding underneath the lush countryside. Shooting the title completely on location,writer/director Colin Finbow gives the film a decaying Horror appearance,by showing destroyed buildings in the reflections of flames ,and giving the tribe caveman-style clothes,with primitive tools.

Whilst the child actors give some awkwardly stilted performances,David Haig does very well at giving Ash an underlying menace,which appears on the horizon,as Aaron starts to uncover who the Moonpeople are.For the first hour of the movie,the screenplay by Finbow cleverly crosses Post-Apocalypse with Folk Horror, by matching the tribes fear of what awaits in the outside world,with a desperate,decaying scream of keeping a grip on the crumbled edges of mankind.Bringing the Moonpeople out of the shadows for the ending,Finbow delivers the previously underlying message with the subtly of a sledgehammer.Whilst the message over a fear of nuclear war is well meaning,Finbow's presentation leads all of the tense mysterious atmosphere

Come, Sit. I Am The Teller Of Tales.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 6/10 · 22 June 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Dark Enemy; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 1.25 Pace: 1.25 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.25

TOTAL: 6.25 out of 10.00

This short film, Dark Enemy, by The Children's Film Unit, came as a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much. I only wanted something light to watch on a too warm afternoon. What I beheld, while I got myself fan-cooled, was a dark, brooding, and mysterious movie about a group of rag-tag kids living in the wilds.

Colin Finbow, the writer and director of this dark sci-fi gem, tells the story of the youngers and the elders. This sliver of humanity has chosen to live in harmony with the planet. They grow their food and never eat anything that was once alive. They pray to their gods when the sun rises and sets over the hills of their valley. All is peaceful, and all is well. Except that an illness has befallen the elders, and now they number only two. Ash, the youngest elder, confines the other, Ezra, as he is growing old and his mind slips, and when he tells the stories, he may speak of things never to be spoken of. This world has secrets, but what are they, and how will they impact the youngers? Ash, needing to assign a new leader to govern after him, sends three youngers on a traditional trial to decide sovereignty. The first who returns will rule. During this test of skill and endurance, they learn the dire truth of humanity's history. Will it change the youngers for the better or the worst? Finbow creates a believable world filled with credible and interesting characters. The mystery surrounding their realm is the chief driving element. He uses the children and the storyteller to embellish its mystique. It was these that pulled me into the story and kept me watching.

Finbow's directorial skills are rudimentary, though he does have a good eye for using shadows and light. It is displayed best in the scenes showing Ezra's confinement in his tiny shack. The pools of darkness within adds a feeling of disquiet and subtle threat. He's a recluse, but the constrictive shadows add extra unease to his seclusion. They also work well in the opening sequence with the narration to instil those same emotions in your subconscious. Though the pacing is slow, Finbow utilises it brilliantly to allow the viewer to deliberate on the story and its underlying meaning and mood.

The cast is not great; nor are they terrible - Their performances are like the sea - They have ebbs and tides. In some segments, some actors and actresses portraying the youngers are good, while others aren't so agreeable. But, later, you'll find their pros and cons swapped around. And in a couple of scenes, all the youngers perform well. The only constants are the two elders, David Haig as Ash and Douglas Storm as Ezra.

I would happily recommend all the Sci-Fi fans give Dark Enemy at least one watch. I enjoyed it, though you can probably figure out the story's mystery yourself. But you don't have to since it's a spoiler in the IMDb description.

When you return from your Trial of Ascencion, come on round and gnaw on a few carrots while you check out my The Final Frontier and Dramatisation Of Life lists to see where I ranked Dark Enemy.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Not worth the bother

[matthew-hyatt · 2/10 · 4 April 2013]

How can this film be a low budget British gem? It ain't. As the late John Brosnan would say, the message in a film like this is the usual old one - science and technology are evil, and nature is good. Or, as the late John Brosnan would put it again, there are those who think that if you add the sci-fi elements to a movie like this, it automatically becomes a science fiction movie. Because I am afraid that is just about all that sums up a film like this, especially as it has loads and loads of holes. For a start, who is the Great Spirit supposed to be? Is the Great Spirit God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth? The audience is simply not told. What's more, why were there brand new wind turbines in the valley? Who put them there? And before Aron makes the journey to the edges of the valley, we are told that others have done this already. Well what happened to them? Did they settle out beyond the edges of the valley and never come back? Or did they come back and tell everybody what they had seen? If that is the case, why was not their observations passed down to future generations? Even more annoying is this - when Aron gets to the edges of the valley, he sees fields, a house with smoke coming out of the chimney and sheep in the fields. Surely he should be seeing a ruined nuclear burnt landscape - but he doesn't. Or is he seeing ghosts from the past? Not only that, others who double cross Aron and go beyond the edges themselves come back and claim they have met and spoken to other people beyond the valley edges! Well, how come Aron didn't meet them? As John Brosnan would put it - it simply does not pay to ask. Because writer Colin Finbow just simply abandons all explanations for an all out attack on human greed and exploitation, which is what the rest of the children succumb to. And there is only one expression to make on all of that - Good God!Honestly, this film simply is not worth watching because it just does not have a proper vision on what it is supposed to be about. Nice countryside around the Welsh valley used, though!

When the moon struck a nerve.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 10 March 2023]

A good idea on paper, this comes a bit slow and tedious at times in its story of a group of youngsters growing up together after some sort of world disaster seemingly destroys the rest of the planet around them with the exception of some Moon people and moon dogs who are to be avoided at all costs.

It's a bit "Children of the Damned" and "Lord of the Flies" in nature as young David Haig goes against the wishes of older young people and continues to associate with the aging Douglas Storm whose ways are said to be detrimental to their future, something Storm denies even though he seems to have symptoms of early dementia. Haig ventures out into the world to discover the truth, and a haunting, scary voice calls to him, leading him to a very dark truth.

I found this film to be ponderous at times, certainly ambitious in its story of a future world where nothing but darkness seems to be awaiting Haig and the others, but the story is rather convoluted and the pacing slow and dull. It is beautifully filmed, but there seems to be a much ado about nothing elements to what path the film is led to, and stock footage of society as it was years before takes the film into a very strange twisted world, making it depressing in its weird Twilight Zone theme. Certainly not for children, and a bit of a letdown.