Darkroom (1989)

 When I was watching In Search of Darkness Parts 1 and 2, you could really tell how difficult it was for the documentary filmmakers to select quality films towards the end of the 80s. By 1989, the pickings were slimming. Especially, the slasher genre, was in serious drought in terms of quality. You had a lot of pedestrian, mediocre, unmemorable slashers petering out the genre as the 90s pretty much was a desert with very few films eking out any sort of interest. Darkroom (1989) is a film I found on Tubi TV by chance as I was determining a final slasher film from the 80s to close out my first trio of films for the long weekend. As insignificant as it was, the Nico Mastorakis produced (as well as co-direct), O'Hara directed slasher wasn't a total waste, though I could see the identity of the killer very early into the film. There was a clumsy error (to me, but it was obviously a director/writer touch I thought gave away too much) where the photographer killer (or camera killer, I guess) is shown inside a bedroom within the family home where a majority of the film takes place, a farmhouse isolated from others for miles in rural California. And the color of the killer's hair behind the camera is shown in brief snippets with dialogue telegraphing the killer's identity just too much. The reason behind the killer's psychopathy is depraved enough with his father capturing in picture his lover bound on the bed, warping the kid's young mind. Janet (Jill Pierce) introduces her mullet-haired photographer beau to her family. Visiting from the city is Steve (Jeff Arbaugh), hoping he makes a good impression. Meanwhile, a killer with a camera and photography lab has some sort of hangup with Janet's family (or anyone else in his way), picking them off one by one, either using a gun, knife, phone, or ax. To be honest, I just thought the direction was rather generic, the developing story not all that engaging, and the killer ultimately a letdown. The violence can be somewhat vicious, but how its shot is not that impactful. The cast didn't excite me all that much, either. I did find the opening credits, using photographic tools and film, very creative. I just felt there was a reason this film hasn't really ever been on the lips of slasher fans all these years...it is rather forgettable. The red herrings --especially a boyfriend of Janet's troubled sister -- are not that inspired. The slasher genre was just tired. With any genre, some distance for creative recovery was in dire need. Unfortunately, the 90s suffered from the tail end of a decade seemingly running nearly on empty. 2/5