User Reviews

The Aftermath was, I believed, the shining career moment of auteur Steve Barkett, but man I was wrong. So wrong.

I referred to Barkett in that review as someone that "looks like every stepfather in the late 70's and early 80's, the kind of guy that takes you fishing even though you don't really want to go and says stuff like, "I really care about your mother" and "You don't have to call me dad, unless you want to" while at nights you ball your fists up and sob hot, wet tears while he and your beloved mother act out the next ten pages in Dr. Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex."

This one takes place nine years later, so just imagine. He's been your stepdad awhile, things went weird but kind of bonded and now your mom is dead and he still wants to be in your life but has gone full Q-Anon. This would be the hero of this tale, Richard Flynn, who really does have a maybe son in this played by his real son, and it's all about a woman cucking a demon lord with a detective which doesn't seem all that smart but there you go, that's the world of Empire of the Dark. The end of all this is that Angela, the love of our hero's life, is about to be killed - as is her son - by Godfrey Ho's multi-xeroxed actor Richard Harrison, so Richard makes the choice, saves the kid and lives with it.

A few years - maybe twenty - later and we have a Demon Slasher on the loose and Angela coming to Richard in his dreams. What follows is pure scum magic, as the grocery store from Cobra gets ripped off, Joe Pilato shows up with his guts unchoked upon and his hair frosted white and his ability to overact still in place, ninja demon Satan worshippers attack at will, every woman wants a mustache ride from our amply proportioned ex-cop bounty hunter stepdad leading man, sword fights and training montages, more women wanting to taste some of that Frito-dust laden poon broom on Richard's mug, puppet demons, priests blessing guns, headlobbing and all long dead lovers coming back from the other side and you can only imagine what problems that causes for social security and taxes because just changing your married name can be a real handful.

My God, this movie is wonderful. It's as if in the intervening decade Barkett dreamed of making something dorkier than his first movie and by all that's bad in movies, he did it. And I love him for it. I wish he made fifty more films, but the two he did get out there still have the power to destroy minds.

Let's be clear: this is NOT a good movie. At all. But if you are looking for an involuntary comedy with lots of fun to offer, then look no further.

Empire of the dark is the second production of self-made auteur Steve Barkett, an overweight, self styled "action hero" who also directs, edits, scripts, produces and choreographs the fights in this...thing. His son -his spitting image, although with 30 kg of fat less- co-stars as...his adoptive son. Talk about imagination! What makes these kind of movies fun is not only the incompetent acting, effects and cinematography, but the astounding ambition of Barkett, who wrote a convoluted script with a lot of stuff he certainly should have known he didn't have the money nor the talent to pull off. As a result, the flick is ambitious well beyond his means, and each disastrous scene tops the next one, without giving any room for boredom.

The "plot" is a bit more ambitious of what you expect from this kind of flick. Cop Barkett receives a call and goes to the rescue of an old flame. She happens to be trapped in some kind of alternate, hellish dimension where she is to be sacrificed by some devil-worshipers. While there, he fights the cult, but at the last moment he is forced to choose between saving the girl, or saving her baby, who was also going to be killed. He chooses the latter, rescues the kid, and leaves the alternate dimension just in time.

20 years later, aside from his mustache Barkett looks remarkably similar to his "younger" self two decades prior. He has been training in sword-fighting as to be prepared in case the cult reappears, and, guess what, that's exactly what happens.

I won't spoil the rest of the movie, but it's INSANE. Just when you think you have seen it all, the last ten minutes blow your head off. And even in the last seconds of the movie, we are treated with a death scene so stupid, so convoluted and forced, you won't believe it until you see it.

Credit where it's due, I've read that many guys who worked in this film managed to to great in blockbusters like Avatar and such, mainly in the technical areas. So limitations aside, Barkett seems to have had a great eye for talent.

Run to see this flick with your friends. You are going to have a blast.