Film Review: The Blackout

About The Blackout (2009) Los Angeles, Christmas Eve: a series of power outages, minor earth tremors and other strange events threaten to ruin the holidays. But when the residents of a suburban apartment block experience a sudden total blackout, they are determined to investigate. Deep in the cavernous basement they make a shocking discovery – what is seemingly the breeding ground of a new race of blood-thirsty creatures. With it quickly becoming apparent that the frightening occurrences overtaking LA are connected, this group of rag-tag neighbours must put aside their differences and fight to save their city from an eternal blackness. With time running out and the murderous creatures just getting started, they know they must restore the power, as when the lights go out for good, the feeding will begin…

Starring: Barbara Streifel Sanders, Joseph Dunn, Ian Malcolm

Directed by: Robert David Sanders

Runtime: 80 minutes

Studio: Kaleidoscope Entertainment

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Review: The Blackout

The Blackout says it all in the title really. A city is plagued by a series of earthquakes, power starts to cut out intermittently and all on Christmas Eve. Our focus is on one block of apartments in particular where many of the residents are gathered at a party. The night becomes a pretty unpleasant one though when something sinister is discovered in the basement and begins to go on a murderous rampage throughout the building.

Elizabeth (Barbara Streifel Sanders) and Daniel (Joseph Dunn) are celebrating Christmas with their two children – Ashley (Abigail Droeger) and Kyle (Tyler Armstrong) – as well as Daniel’s brother Dylan (Michael Caruso) who is a heavy drinker and lacks basic etiquette in his inebriated state. To try and ease the tension, Daniel sends his son to the basement to get a present. Why it’s down there I have no idea. Given that this basement is pretty dark and scary is it good parenting to send a child alone? My concerns heightened when Daniel goes to look for Kyle and takes Ashley with him. She goes down to the basement ahead of her father and when he can’t find the children he just casually goes home and says he’s no idea where they are. He doesn’t even seem frantic. Elsewhere are Ethan (Michael Caruso) and Claire (Caroline Rich) who are having marriage issues and Ethan’s solution is to go to a party and flirt with the hostess. Nice. Soon the festivities are ruined by monsters from the underground that begin killing everyone that has the misfortune of getting in their way. The residents that have remained in the apartments for Christmas must now band together and make their way outside but with Elizabeth and Daniel now deciding it is a good time to find their children the group of survivors can either split up or stick together and find Kyle and Ashley first.

The Blackout is slow to get going with primary focus being on two marriages that have a spot of tension for different reasons. The other characters involved seem to be fillers more than anything else. The monsters that terrorise the people in the apartments don’t look overly convincing though they are menacing to the extent I wouldn’t want to sit and have a drink with them. The acting here is utterly lousy with Elizabeth and Daniel being some of the most unconvincing parents I have seen. I am not a father and have no desire to be but even I felt more concern for the two children in this film than their parents seemed to. The story is lacking in explanation about why these monster have appeared save the earthquakes throughout the city and the conclusion leaves this open-ended with more questions than resolutions.

The Blackout is a pretty tedious effort, devoid of convincing acting and missing a decent story. Questionable parenting aside, the characters are not an engaging bunch and you won’t feel a flicker of emotion as their numbers are wilted down. Actually you may feel anger and annoyance at having wasted your time with this one. Even ardent horror fans will find little to salvage from this wreck.

Verdict: 1/5

(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)

About the Author:

I was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England and have always been a bookworm and enjoyed creative writing at school. In 1999 I created the Elencheran Chronicles and have been writing ever since. My first novel, Fezariu's Epiphany, was published in May 2011. When not writing I'm a lover of films, games, books and blogging. I now live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with my wife, Donna, and our six cats - Kain, Razz, Buggles, Charlie, Bilbo and Frodo.

David M. Brown – who has written 779 posts on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave.

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