Review of Against the Dark (2009) by Nicholas R — 02 Feb 2010

Segal is set apart from his contemporaries. Where as Arnie, JCVD and Sly all moved away from what made them massive and into comedy, or just gave up the life style all together, Segal has continued to plough a lone furrow. This is probably where he has gone wrong. Although his direct-to-DVD action flicks sell well and are allowing him to continue to do what he does heâ??s hardly improving his street cred or justifying his artistic integrity. And this is the problem; where as Arnie and Sly embraced comedy and self-parody, Segal would only ever place his tongue firmly in cheek if he were trying to swallow it to avid interrogation!

Itâ??s with this stony faced seriousness that youâ??re expected to accept Against The Dark, a direct-to-DVD vampire film and embrace its grim storyline of survivors struggling to find safety in a vampire riddled world. What we get in fact is precisely what youâ??d expect from a direct-to-DVD vampire film: poor dialogue that is so chewy the actorâ??s choke on its haminess. Dreadful direction and thoroughly disorientating editing/cinematography. Segal shows up half way through as a Kitana wielding â??Hunterâ?? who almost single handily butchers his way through countless hoards of the undead while the rest of the meagre group of survivors find themselves getting picked off one at a time. Character engagement is nil and an ending that was stolen directly from Godzilla and The Rock just adds to what is a truly dreadful piece of filmmaking.