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If you took a look at filmmaker Jeff Burr's filmography, you'd notice a clear theme: he's directed stuff like Stepfather 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Pumpkinhead 2, Puppet Master 4 AND Puppet Master 5! Clearly Mr. Burr knows how to deliver a product when he's given very little money to work with - because, dig those sequels or not - they've all turned a pretty penny over the years.

So what one takes away from Straight Into Darkness is simply this: Jeff Burr has most likely spent the better part of his 20+ year career making movies for other people...so that one day he'd have the ability to make a movie or two for himself. And if you go into his latest film with visions of Pumpkinheads and Killer Puppets dancing through your head, you're in for a shock.

The good kind.

Because Straight Into Darkness is a damn solid war movie, an anti-violence parable that uses blood, bullets, gore & grimness to make its point loud and clear. It's a movie that clearly has a glowering disdain for our society's preoccupation with wholesale slaughter and mindless warmongering, yet the film doesn't preach or pander or hawk its wares in blatant fashion

Straight Into Darkness opens as two disgraced Americans are being arrested after some particularly nasty war crimes. On their way to a court martial, their Jeep hits a land-mine (sparking off a truly harrowing sequence in which several MPs are blasted to kingdom come) and the pair manage to escape into the dank wasteland of war-torn Europe.

After avoiding a desperate German brigade, Losey (Ryan Francis) and Deming (Scott MacDonald) come across a shellshocked schoolhouse and a collection of feral children. Given that Deming is a horribly violent criminal and Losey is not really all that much of a soldier, the kids and the fugitives quickly find themselves reluctant allies when those pesky Germans show up and start snooping around.

Reminiscient of Keith Gordon's fantastic A Midnight Clear mixed with a healthy dose of Rod Serlingism, Straight Into Darkness is a dark and stark little tale. The wind-blasted Romanian locations offer an unsettling palette, the violence is extreme and unapologetically effective and, despite what was clearly a rather limited budget, the movie offers a memorably mesmerizing visual experience as well. Which just goes to show what you can accomplish when you have more passion and creativity than you do blank checks to throw around.

So if this director has spent 20 years as a low-budget gun-for-hire because he loves making movies, how hopeful do you think he is that 'Straight Into Darkness' represents a big departure? Well, I may be only one guy, but I know my flicks, and I know sincere and heartfelt artistry when I see it. That stuff is slathered all over 'Straight Into Darkness'.

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originally posted: 03/19/04 10:42:05
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