Leofwine_draca A disappointing addition to the vampire film which definitely lacks bite when dealing with its subject - now, this may not be surprising considering the TV-movie format, but it is a bit of a surprise when the director is none other than Stuart Gordon, the gentleman renowned for his two on-the-edge additions to 1980s horror cinema, RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND. Gordon here displays little of the vitality or skill he brought to his most famous movies and instead acts like more of a journeyman director, happy to pick up his paycheque with minimal effort. Not that the film is entirely bad - sure, the Romanian setting is nice and there are some arty tracking shots and good cinematography to give the movie a Euro feel. But the script is mundane and the story, which starts off so well, soon falls by the wayside.The first hour of the film consists of the plot set-up, with nothing being explained too fully. Thus, we have a sense of mystery and a fairly close realism building up a little tension here and there. Unfortunately once the major plot twist is revealed and the vampires come to light (as it were), the film falls to pieces and becomes yet another clichéd bad guys vs. good guys fight to the finish, displaying little in the way of logic or surprises. The effects are minimal and the vampires largely lacking in interest, a typically boring group of Gothic types. The only difference is that they suck blood through their tongues rather than with fangs, although why exactly the lore was rewritten is unexplained as it isn't used for anything other than novelty value. The violence is mostly offscreen and the only thing to recommend in the film are some fairly good makeups used for the finale.Acting wise, there are no great surprises here and nothing to make you sit up in your seat. Mia Sara (LEGEND) portrays yet another young, fragile heroine in a matter-of-fact way and her acting is neither particularly good or particularly bad, just so-so. It is good to see Anthony Perkins (EDGE OF SANITY) employing another of his sinister characters - complete with black eyeliner - but he seems mostly wasted in an ambivalent part. Robert Reynolds is forgettable and uninteresting as the evil vampire villain, although Dezso Garas is surprisingly good as the kind-hearted taxi driver with a dark secret. DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS is only worth watching if it's a quiet night and you're looking for some easy viewing before you go to bed.

The_Void Stuart Gordon was a busy man back in 1990. Aside from his surprisingly good retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and something called Robojox, he also made this little known TV movie, which like the Poe film; is surprisingly good! Given that the film was made for television, it's not surprising that it doesn't feature the blood and gore of Re-Animator, and overall it feels like a cheaper, more rushed production. These things don't matter, however, as Gordon makes good use of what he has here, and rather than bombard the audience with special effects, he sticks to the more difficult method of storytelling to keep the film alive; and while this story takes obvious influence from a range of earlier films, Gordon's vampire flick is an involving and entertaining little flick for the duration of it's running time. The plot follows a young woman who travels to Romania in order to find her father. It's not long before she realises that he was killed, but the story doesn't end there as new evidence turns up that links her father to a mysterious cult of vampires...Stuart Gordon is undoubtedly one of the greatest horror directors of modern times, and one of the reasons for that is that he isn't willing to stick to conventions. Gordon is happy to take filming outside of the USA and risk making a film with a largely foreign cast and, just like it would in the later 'Castle Freak' and 'Dagon' - the alien European setting does the film no end of favours where mystery is concerned. The lead role is taken by Mia Sara, who manages to do three things with it. Her acting isn't bad at all, and she's rather nice to look at too; but perhaps the best thing about her role in this film is that her looks and persona perfectly suit the style and tone of the movie. Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins (complete with silly accent), gives a memorable central performance also, and the pair are backed up nicely by Robert Reynolds and Jack Coleman. The plot plays out nicely, and Gordon keeps things very much on the level. There isn't a great deal of 'bite' in the script, but it really doesn't need it as this film is all about mystery. There's a lot of very good ideas in this movie, and it's fair to say that the sum of the parts falls a little short of what could have been; but I really enjoyed Daughter of Darkness and give it warm recommendations.

Paul Andrews Daughter of Darkness tells the tale of a Chicago high school teacher named Katherine Thatcher (Mia Sara) whose Mother has recently died, Katherine decides to travel to Romania to track down the Father she never knew with only a photograph & an address to go on. Once in Bucharest she contacts the American consulate Jack Devlin (Jack Coleman) who warns Katherine to be careful in her investigations as Romania is not the safest of places. Ever since she was a young child Katherine has suffered from vivid dreams which have turned into nightmares & have become even more real, while searching for her Father Katherine notices a few familiar looking things, places & landmarks that she recognises from her dreams. Katherine ends up at a glass works where she meets Anton (Anthony Perkins) who turns out to be her Father, unfortunately for Katherine she has attracted the attention of the Romanian secret police & her Father just happens to be the ruler of a group of modern day blood sucking Vampires, Katherine learns she has Vampire blood running through her veins...Directed by Stuart Gordon Daughter of Darkness is an OK horror film that passes the time but didn't exactly amaze me. The script by co-producer Andrew Laskos takes itself extremely seriously & starts off a bit slowly but the pace eventually picks up & it turns into a reasonably effective film. Much of what happens in Daughter of Darkness is very low key, it's not a particularly exciting film, I wasn't glued to my seat, it's not scary & there's nothing original about it but there was just enough to it to maintain my interest & stop me from going to sleep. As in a lot of Vampire films Daughter of Darkness cherry picks the aspects of Vampire film-lore that it wants to use, these Vampires are killed by sunlight & sleep in coffins but they don't use fangs to drink blood & crosses don't do anything either. The whole thing is rather predictable & you can see the so-called twist coming a mile off, the character's are pretty good, the plotting is OK & everything works reasonably well in context. Daughter of Darkness is one of those films that is uniformly average in almost all departments, I can't say it's a bad film but at the same time I'm not going to say that it's brilliant because it clearly isn't.Director Gordon does a good job here at making at lot of Daughter of Darkness effective. This isn't the sort of horror Gordon is known for & I was surprised to see his name on the credits as he is probably best known for splatter films such as Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), Dolls (1987), Castle Freak (1995), Dagon (2001) & King of the Ants (2003) amongst other's. Shot on location in Romania it certainly has a unique feel to it, there's some atmosphere but little in the way of blood or gore present in some of Gordon's other genre films, in fact I can't think of any.While I was watching Daughter of Darkness I kept saying to myself that it looked very flat & bland like a made-for-TV film & then what do I discover when I check the IMDb? Yep it was indeed made-for-TV & frankly you can tell right from the off which isn't a compliment. It's generally well made although it obviously had both a low budget & low production values. What on Earth is that accent supposed to be Anthony? Mr. Psycho (1960) himself Anthony Perkins has one of the most ridiculous accent's ever captured on film, I really think this guy has made a career out of one film & he is definitely living on past glories or rather glory as in singular.Daughter of Darkness is a somewhat unremarkable film, it's OK & it's watchable but I'd probably have forgotten all about it by the end of the week. Worth a watch if your bored but there are better films out there.

damocaz I recently bought this film for my girlfriend who had fond memories of watching it as a teenager. Being a made for TV film it does have some rather low production values, and some of the scripting is a little wooden. However, there is no denying that it has a certain atmosphere that you don't find in many films. Perhaps it had something to do with the location (the bulk of the film is set within Bucharest in Romania) or perhaps it is the combination of the set and the subject matter.Whatever the cause, the dreamy, sinister atmosphere of the film does make it worth watching...so long as you don't expect too much from it.If you like vampire films and haven't watched this yet then I can recommend it, a good film also for anyone wanting to catch a flavour of Eastern Europe and some of Romania's seedy little area's.