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Bookmark this pageDarklands (1996)
Director: Julian Richards
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This £500k first feature has been called the Welsh Wicker Man. Writer/director Richards readily acknowledges his debt to the 1973 horror classic - partly out of fanboy respect, partly, one suspects, to defuse accusations of plagiarism. In his least action-oriented role to date, Fairbrass plays Frazer Truick, a Welsh-born, London-raised journo whose investigations into the death of a young steelworker suggest links between the industrial 'accident', fervent nationalist politician David Keller (Finch), and an uppity group of Celtic neo-pagans. Truick's nose for a story and lust for the dead youth's beautiful sister, cub reporter Rachel (King), soon have him knee-deep in desecrated churches, slaughtered pigs, crazy priests and a revivalist political conspiracy. The confident direction and Zoran Djordevic's atmospheric visuals are complemented by a score that effectively blends Test Department's percussive industrial noise with gentler Welsh folk songs.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: Julian Richards
Producer: Paul Brooks
Cast: Craig Fairbrass, Rowena King, Jon Finch, David Duffy, Roger Nott, Richard Lynch, Nicola Branson full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 91 mins
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