Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.5

Shocking Dark Blu-ray Movie Review

Maybe not *quite* totally tubular.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 3, 2018

There are a number of funny aspects, many unintentional and some kind of tangential, to all three of the releases that Severin Film is putting out simultaneously this week. For some unintentional comedy directly related to any of this odd trio of releases, I’d recommend simply watching them (yes, that’s a joke). For some more tangential but still kind of amusing data points, there’s a brief summary of the somewhat confusing history of the so-called Zombi franchise in the Zombie 3 Blu-ray review. Zombi 3 (the “e” is missing from the actual title credit of the film) grew out of Zombi 2, which itself was marketed as a direct follow up to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which was released overseas as Zombi. However, just to make things delightfully confounding, Zombi 2’s stateside Blu-ray release was named Zombie. There’s a somewhat similar “shell game” at play with regard to Shocking Dark, which was originally released overseas under the title Terminator II, and which had a marketing campaign obviously designed expressly to make potential audience members think that the film was an honest to goodness sequel to The Terminator. However, in one of my more favorite recent quotes gleaned from the always questionable Wikipedia, “Although the film was promoted as a rip-off of James Cameron's The Terminator, it is actually mostly a rip-off of Aliens, also by Cameron.” Severin’s press materials accompanying this release actually kind of celebrate the film’s genesis, mentioning that Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi “went beyond brazen plagiarism” to create “a fearless act of deranged genius. . .a bravura rip off of both Aliens and Terminator”.

Hasn’t Venice been through enough already? Not only was the city founded (according to some lore, anyway) by poor refugees seeking escape from the invading Barbarians, its history was fraught with the challenges of attempting to build an urban environment in a waterlogged locale, a challenge which has continued unabated in the ensuing centuries, as some newshounds may recall from repeated reports that the entire burg is, in fact, sinking. Shocking Dark posits a whole new wave (sorry) of horrors inflicted on the once dazzling metropolis, with both water and air pollution making Venice “a dead city” in the words of an early “news report” the film utilizes to contextualize things.

The choice of Venice as a putative location for Shocking Dark might have given the film a bit of a distinctive air (polluted or otherwise), but in just one of several kind of funny plot contrivances, a lot of the film plays out in a generic underground lair that sees a variety of characters running through steam laden hallways in panicked attempts to escape from an occasionally briefly viewed monster. There’s a supposedly high tech control center that is being run by the Tubular Corporation (I kid you not), which installed some kind of underground viaduct system that was supposed to save Venice but instead contributed to its demise (certain — and some my argue most — plot points in this film are not overly explained and/or developed). When a bunch of workers send an SOS which is itself interrupted by some “technical difficulties”, a force is assembled to investigate.

Without getting into specifics (mostly for those who may have not yet seen either The Terminator Anthology or the Alien: 6 Film Collection, and, yes, that’s kind of a joke), a number of characters who are obviously, um, based on characters from better remembered James Cameron enterprises assemble to investigate. The chief heroine is Ripley wannabe Sara Drumball (Haven Tyler), who is teamed with a Tubular employee named Samuel Fuller (Christopher Ahrens), a guy with a certain steely presence (again, sorry) with perhaps an ulterior motive or two on his chip, er, mind.

Shocking Dark is just bat guano crazy a lot of the time, bolstered by hyperbolic line readings, lots of screaming, and a production design that is equal parts Ed Wood and not quite ready for prime time Star Trek: The Original Series. (Speaking of the venerable Gene Roddenberry enterprise, keep your ears attuned to some of the sound effects, which sound suspiciously similar to some that were utilized in the the 1960s series.) Suffice it to say that all of the aforementioned comments about rip offs might have been more cheekily served by calling them "Ripley offs", but to reference another famous Ripley, you may "believe it or not" when viewing this frankly incredible casserole constructed out of other people's ingredients.

Shocking Dark Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shocking Dark is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As with the simultaneously released Zombie 3 and Zombie 4: After Death, Severin doesn't provide a ton of information on the transfer, though it does mention "scanned in 2K from the Director's Cut negative discovered in a Rome lab vault", which is the only time an OCN is referenced in press materials for the three releases. While I'm scoring this at the same 3.5 I gave Zombie 3, mostly due to the amount of age related wear and tear in the form of scratches, flecks and other damage (some of which can be pretty easily spotted in some of the screenshots accompanying this review), this has the most consistently pleasing looking palette of the trio, with good saturation levels, at least when lighting conditions allow, and above average detail levels, again at least when lighting conditions allow. The brightly lit Tubular "high tech" facility probably resonates best due to "office" lighting, with the fabrics on the "futuristic" costumes looking precise, and the blue and yellow tones looking reasonably vivid. A lot of the film takes place in steam strewn underground alleyways and the like, and detail levels are understandably less discernable. A number of shots are lit in things like deep red tones, and fine detail is pretty negligible in these moments. While the film is often shrouded in darkness, there are no real issues with grain resolution or general compression competence like some that are seen in Zombie 4. My score is 3.75.

Shocking Dark Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shocking Dark features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that offers decent fidelity and some surprisingly tight "sync" which suggests to me that this film may have actually been filmed with "live" sound recording, rather than post dubbed. There's just the barest hint of break up in the upper midrange that can be heard on occasion when amplitudes spike in the more "intense" moments, especially when characters scream or speak loudly. Otherwise, though, things sound fine if not especially deep, with dialogue, effects and score reproduced without any significant problems.

Shocking Dark Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Terminator in Venice (1080p; 13:14) features more of the interview with Co-Director and Co-Screenwriter Claudio Fragasso and Co-Screenwriter Rossella Drudi, parts of which can also be seen on Severin's Blu-ray releases of Violence in a Women's Prison, Zombie 3 and Zombie 4: After Death. Somewhat hilariously, even Drudi states "I mostly ripped off Alien" during the interview. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Once Upon a Time In Italy (1080p; 12:44) is an interview with actress Geretta Geretta.


• Alternate Italian Titles (1080p; 1:44) feature the Terminator 2 moniker.


• Trailer (480i; 1:22) seems to be sourced from an Asian market release (note that the disc features a Mandarin track) and (again, somewhat hilariously) features the title Aliennators.

Unlike the two Zombie films that Severin is releasing day and date with Shocking Dark, this release offers no soundtrack CD. You're not missing much in my estimation.

Shocking Dark Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was actually kind of weirdly "charmed" (if that's the right word) by the two Zombie films Severin released at the same time as Shocking Dark, but the absurdly derivative nature of this outing combined with some less than effective performance styles which includes a lot of actors playing to the veritable second balcony almost all of the time didn't sit quite as well with me. I'm sure there are fans of this low rent enterprise, and for them the good news is video is pretty nice looking aside from some age related wear and tear, and audio suffices well enough, too. The interviews with Fragasso and Drudi, and Geretta, may be the actual ultimate selling point here for some interested consumers.