Darkroom Movie Review – Beware of Modeling Job Offers

Runtime: 80 minutes
Release Date: July 3, 2013
Rating: R
Director: Britt Napier


Michelle is a woman desperately in need of some help. After a drinking and driving accident took the life of her boyfriend, she found herself in rehab and working closely with Rachel (Elizabeth Rohm, Angel). After she leaves rehab, Rachel offers to set her up working for a photographer named Larry. When Michelle arrives at his palatial home, she learns that he really needs her to work as a model because his flaked for the day.


Though Michelle isn't comfortable with the idea, she agrees to model for him. His assistant helps her pick out an outfit and do her hair and makeup. Michelle then finds herself trapped in a room and watching another woman in the same outfit on a live video feed on her television. When she eventually escapes from her room, she learns that Larry has a close relationship with Rachel and that both want her to repent for her sins. Until she admits the truth, they won't let her escape, but she somehow knows that even if she does give into their demands, there is still no escape for her...


I saw a trailer for Darkroom a few weeks ago and didn't think much of it until I realized that it was actually in my Nextflix queue. (BTW, I refuse to call it "My List;" it's still my queue.) It had an interesting premise, but sadly, it didn't really deliver on the premise. The trailer made it seem like a tight little thriller about a woman trapped in a big home and trying to escape a serial killer. It's really a slow and prodding movie about a woman trying to escape a handful of religious nut jobs that refuse to believe that she is free of sin.


Of course, we learn that she really isn't free of sin. Every time that she talks about her boyfriend's death, she flashes back to the moment when they all climbed in the car. They show that scene so many times that you just know it isn't the whole story. By the time she admits that she was the one driving drunk, you really don't care anymore.


It doesn't help that the movie introduces characters and expects us to care about them for no reason. Oh, that one woman tied up in a room is a girl that we saw for five seconds in the beginning? Well of course Michelle should risk her life to save her then. The characters that we do like and care about end up being just as crazy as the killers. As soon as Darkroom finished, I deleted it from my queue and started forgetting about it.