Austin Barnett (Dave Coyne) wants a piece of the ghost hunter reality TV show action. So much so that he gets onboard his pal Jessie (Tonya Kay) and cousin Bruce (John C Bailey) to be his camera crew on a pilot for his show Austin Barnett Paranormal Investigator. Keeping it within the family girlfriend Lucy is brought aboard as a ‘paranormal expert’ and they are off to investigate the old Hewitt place, where in 1953 Henry and Anna Hewitt died in mysterious circumstances.
Austin’s crew is ready with a car load of ghost hunter gizmos and some thrift store props and fishing line to spook the house up for the shoot. And because every ghost hunt show needs a medium Bruce has been on Craig’s List to find a suitable spirit medium in the alluringly gothic shape of Meaghan Mulrooney (Shanna Forresthall) all the way from the icy wastes of Canada. So now fully prepped they enter the house and prepare to investigate. Did I hear anyone say bad idea?
Yes of course it was a bad idea. Meagan turns out not to be the fraudster Austin expected and pretty soon we are neck-deep in al the familiar haunted house stuff complete with disembodied voices, ghostly sightings, levitation and full on possession as the spirits start chucking their weight about. Who survives? Well you will just have to download and watch Within the Darkness to find out.
Within the Darkness does get off to a bit of a slow start and I did start to wonder where exactly director Jonathan Zuck was taking us with the plot as the group’s internal dynamics and jealousies were exposed, however once Meaghan arrives on the scene the film gets a lot more interesting as the weird stuff start happening. Speaking of the weird stuff it is effectively delivered without resorting to overblown CGI effects and includes at least one almighty great jump scare. There’s also some completely unnecessary but not unpleasant nudity and a very effective atmospheric score by Carlos Gaza.
Competently made haunted house picture with a twist we give Within the Darkness a 555/666
Within the Darkness is available now to download from Indican.
The Horror Hothouse 
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