Dark Island (2010)

Here we go returning to that theme that I love. Something bad happens on an isolated research facility and a team of individuals are sent in to find out what exactly went wrong and what lead to the deaths of most everyone there. You know it all has to do with that fact that the facility was doing something they shouldn't have been and now they are paying for their hubris and arrogance.

This time it involves the development of a new biological weapon by Altracorp. Sounds like that stinkin' Umbrella Corp (or BP) and we all know what evil they brought to the world.


After a failed experiment, a new team has been sent in. You got your computer nerd guy, your tough army chick, the no nonsense leader, the civilian doctor and the local charter pilot who is both drunk, skeptical and scruffy lookin'. It's like they read my mind. They are the expendable team of 'experts' who the corporation sends in to do their dirty work. Or that is what we are led to believe.

They aren't there to fix the problem but to discover how bad the situation actually is. If the corporation can benefit from the crisis they want to know - if they can't they need to cover their tracks and accept their loses. It's all a cost/benefit analysis that is going on here. And people ask why corporations make the best villains in movies.



As you can see from the trailer, the filmmakers took a certain smokey character from 'Lost' and gave him some work in this picture. Maybe now we will find out exactly what that monster is. And yes, that is them shooting at the smoke! Why do these numnuts always shoot at smoke. Have bullets ever killed smoke in any movie you have ever seen in your life? GAH! I know I have mentioned that before but it just bugs me.


If this movies looks like the Stargate TV show it's because it was filmed on the west coast of British Colombia. The creators make excellent use of the terrain to create an atmosphere of dread. The isolated island is gray, cold and uninviting. The overcast skies rumble with thunder - a warning like jungle drums informing all that this island is haunted by some form of evil we just don't understand yet.

What has happened on the island is quite interesting. The effects they use to show the transformation of the 'infected' are pretty well done. The twists kept me interested enough to stick around to see how everything would turn out.

If I saw this film on SYFY I would say it was above their average fair. The plot, pacing and action are good for a feature from a production company I have never heard of before and actors I had never seen in anything else.

Just stop shooting at the smoke.