The Dark Power maybe had the potential to be a fun zombie-horror-comedy but like Alien Outlaw, it meanders through most of its already short 80-minute running time and by the finale I kind of tuned out.
The Dark Power
(1985)
Genre(s): Fantasy, Horror
Kino Lorber| NR – 82 min. – $24.95 | October 24, 2023
Date Published: 11/06/2023 | Author: The Movieman
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 1¾/5 |
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Plot Synopses: Weekend party plans are derailed when an ancient Toltec curse unleashes an army of zombies upon a houseful of college coeds. But the odds are evened when ship-cracking lawman Ranger Girard (LASH LARUE) arrives to stage a showdown with the evil dead. Quick Hit Review: The Dark Power was written and directed by Phil Smoot whose follow up to this, Alien Outlaw, I saw only a few nights ago. This one is only slightly better though still plods along for the first two-thirds and when we finally sees these “zombies”, it’s quite underwhelming. On the plus side, Lash LaRue was a lot of fun and the ladies were nice to look at, however I’m not sure what adding two out and out racists added to the story. Still, this wasn’t a complete waste of time and I did manage to get all the way through without wanting me to turn it off. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3/5 |
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This release, #3 in the new Kino Cult line, comes with a matted slip cover. Audio Commentaries:
The Terror of the Tarheel State: Making Dark Power (25:57) — This is a new retrospective featurette with interviews by Smoot, Actors Mary Dalton and Cynthia Bailey and others. Interview with Editor Sherwood Jones (12:01) — New interview where Jones gives his background and how he became involved with The Dark Power. Image Gallery (19:36) |
VIDEO – 4¾/5 |
| The Dark Power is presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and given a new 1080p high-definition transfer which was a 4K restoration from the 16mm Original Camera Negative. With this new restoration, I doubt this ever looked this good even when it was first release 30+ years ago. Detail on this was sharp and well defined and colors are bright throughout. There were some minor scratches here and there along with specs but it’s nothing terribly distracting. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track was pretty impressive for a ultra low budget movie and while there were some hissing every so often, dialogue still came across with good clarity and there was some okay depth when the zombies finally appear. |
OVERALL – 2¾/5 |
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The Dark Power maybe had the potential to be a fun zombie-horror-comedy but like Alien Outlaw, it meanders through most of its already short 80-minute running time and by the finale I kind of tuned out. |