“The Darkness Within” [2009] | Feature Film
Oct 12Door Eleven Productions presents their second feature film,
“The Darkness Within” – in it’s entirety!
Chad Morgan and Ashley Sera have just moved into their new apartment. They’ve gotten engaged and are about to start a new life together. Everything seems perfect, except for one thing – their next-door neighbor, Mr. Reed. After a bizarre encounter, Chad begins to realize that if he doesn’t unlock the secret to this mysterious voyeur soon, he may lose everything – including his mind
Official Selections–
Magnolia Film Festival | 2010
Fright Night Film Fest | 2010
Rock & Shock Film Festival | 2010
Minneapolis Underground Film Festival | 2010
Buy “The Darkness Within” Special Edition DVD!!
This Limited Edition DVD includes the film + the following features:
* Teasers & Trailers
* Gag Reel
* Keep Me Conscious “Thicker Than Blood” music video
* Door Eleven Short Flicks (“Double Date”, “Angel’s Lullaby” & “The Followers”)
Film Threat review of “The Darkness Within”
Aug 02
4.5 Stars
Year Released: 2009
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 90 minutes
Dom Portalla’s award-winning “The Darkness Within” is a psychological-thriller that messes with the mind in that surreptitious way that shocker-addicts only dream about, but very rarely see in contemporary film. With an ending that will trip up even the most seasoned chiller-investigator, “Darkness” has a tightly constructed plot that seems cut from the same MacGuffin-ridden cloth as the one used by Hitchcock—and that’s quite a feat.
In Portalla’s story, freelance videographer Chad Morgan (Jimmy Scanlon) and his fiancé Ashley Sera (Michelle Romano) move into a basement apartment in a working class neighborhood. Chad, a bespectacled, geeky-type really lucks out with the gorgeous and vivacious Ashley, who works as a bartender at a local establishment. Chad and Ashley fix up their home, deal with pesky spiders, and have the usual tiffs newly engaged couples have—until we see that things are not quite as normal as they could be. For one thing, there’s that creepy neighbor named Mr. Reed (Ken Flott), who appears to be a voyeur. Then there’s the trash-talking landlord’s daughter (Stephanie Maheu), who passes the time smoking weed, playing video games, and leading Chad down the path of booze-laden destruction. Of course, Chad is easily led in that direction because as we soon learn, he has a history of alcoholism, which seems to affect his personality in not so nice ways. It turns out his sweet fiancé has a past, too, and is constantly having to explain why her Ex keeps leaving messages on a cell phone that she all too easily forgets at home. Ahhh… life on the home-front—but what’s with Mr. Reed???
Portalla’s film may not be perfect, with those occasional moments of actorial-choppiness and a few irritating pacing-issues that may or may not have roots in post-production, but for the most part, “The Darkness Within” comes as close to Indie-heaven as any new thriller could, and is a film that’s well worth a gander. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed.
Posted on August 2, 2011 in Reviews by
Amy R. Handler
Pick up a copy of “The Darkness Within” Special Edition DVD by clicking the link below!
Cultcuts Magazine mini-capsule review of “The Darkness Within”
Mar 22
THE DARKNESS WITHIN
2009 – NR – 89 Minutes
D: Dom Portalla
S: Jimmy Scanlon, Michelle Romano, Ken Flott, Stephanie Maheu, Sean Pierce, David Wilson
DVD Courtesy ofDoor Eleven Productions
Widescreen/Stereo
Extras: Teaser, Trailer, Gag Reel, Music Video, Short Subjects
Chad Morgan and his fiancée Ashley move into a new apartment. It’s small, rather dumpy, but affordable and a place where they can begin a new life together. Or at least they think they can. Within a short time they discover the place has a spider infestation and a strange landlord situation, plus Chad has an unpleasant run-in with a neighbor named Mr. Reed, who just might be a Peeping Tom and possibly worse. But all that is just the tip of the iceberg. When Chad learns what’s really going on and why he actually ended up moving into the apartment, his entire world starts to fall apart. Writer/director Dom Portalla does an admirable job mounting the suspense in this SOV thriller. From a technical standpoint, there are a few problems, with the constant crossing the line during over-the-shoulder shots being the most repetitive one. But perhaps that is a deliberate distraction revealing how off-balanced the world is in the story. And the world here sure isn’t what it’s supposed to be. This is a tale of an unhinged mind and it works on that level. While the acting isn’t great, it’s not from a lack of effort. Jimmy Scanlon does a good job revealing Chad’s arch from a happy man with a seemingly upbeat future ahead to an angry, desperate soul trying to sort out situations that simply cannot be happening. Scanlon and Michelle Romano have decent chemistry as the young couple, Ken Flott is appropriately ambiguous and creepy as Mr. Reed, while Stephanie Maheu and Sean Pierce are engagingly weird as the upstairs landlords. Overall, this is an entertaining thriller with a cool but not necessarily unexpected twist at the end. Recommended. – Craig Hamann
Source
Pick up a copy of “The Darkness Within” Special Edition DVD by clicking the link below!
Planet Of Terror Podcast!
Mar 16Writer/Director Dom Portalla talks with Geof Capodanno (head blogger at Enter The Man-Cave 
and host Cortez the Killer about his independent film, “The Darkness Within”, on Episode 3 of the
Planet of Terror horror podcast
Other topics include “A Serbian Film”, Monster Mania Horror Convention and old school Nintendo games.
Check it out!
Pick up a copy of “The Darkness Within” on DVD!
Bloody-Disgusting.com reviews “The Darkness Within”
Feb 23
By: Ted Brown
A young couple has just moved into a new apartment but soon things start to unravel with the appearance of a peeping tom whose voyeuristic escapades may very well tear them apart in Dom Portalla’s 2010 horror masterpiece “The Darkness Within”.
Looking back “The Darkness Within” is easily my favorite indie film of 2010, a low budget horror/thriller that would end up completely blowing me away. One of the best things about this film is the fact it was made on such a tiny budget, without flashy special effects and eye candy to distract their viewing audience; they were forced to write a solid and continuously impressive script like in the old days of filmmaking. With creative editing and a stellar script, Dom Portalla is able to create a very Hitchcock feeling movie that focuses on storytelling and character development of a small cast.
“The Darkness Within” is almost three movies in one, you get romance, comedy and terror all rolled up into a neat little package of pure enjoyment. The relationship between Chad (Jimmy Scanlon) and Ashley (Michelle Romano) is spot on with realism, which is very key when it comes to the success of the way this film plays out over time. Dom Portalla does an incredible job at recreating what it is like as a young couple moving into a small cramped space and the real life problems that arise. This makes their persona’s all the more believable and less like make believe characters created by a writer.
The same goes for the relationship between my two favorite characters in the film, the pot smoking, punk rock landlord Jordan Shelby (Stephanie Maheu) and her stoner friend sometimes roommate Dixon Rampart (Sean Pierce), the comedic relief from the despair created by “The Darkness Within”. I know these two, I grew up with them and hung out with them in high school and still see them time to time, no not the actors but their types these are my people. Videogames and smoke filled rooms, these characters are a very accurate portrayal of an entire generation of slackers and angst ridden self proclaimed revolutionists.
The downward spiral effect this movie produces as you sit back and watch Chad’s picture perfect life turn into a never ending journey to rock bottom always takes me back to the era of classic Hitchcock with a ending that only future fuels the constant vibe that you are watching a movie that one day will be considered a hidden gem and cult classic. Ending wise “The Darkness Within” will leave you speechless and for a few moments as the credits are rolling you will start to look back at certain scenes of the film in the back of your mind and slowly but surely everything will add up and you will realize that you have just experienced story telling at its finest.
Take a break from the mainstream Hollywood train and let this unique and fascinating indie film give you a ride worthy of admission, I highly recommend that “The Darkness Within” becomes a part of your movie collection.
Score: 8 / 10
“The Darkness Within” Special Edition DVD’s are now on sale! Purchase a copy by clicking the link below!
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