Dark Corners (DVD)

Blonde Susan has been dreaming of a brunet lookalike named Karen (both played by Thora Birch), and vice versa. While flaxen-haired Susan's life is filled with light and love (and a few pesky nightmares), dark-locked Karen, who works in a mortuary, has become the target of a sexually sadistic serial killer called, unoriginally, The Night Stalker (Oliver Price).

Sort of a horror / slasher Mulholland Drive wannabe, Dark Corners works on the idea of duality and juxtaposing light and dark worlds, both joined by one evil common denominator.

Unfortunately, newbie writer/director Ray Gower and so-called DP Paul Sadourian are so green you can actually see their reflections in the TV set in one scene! (There are probably more such flubs in Dark Corners, but to be honest with you, this movie turned my eyes into cartoon-like pinwheels trying to flip between the blooming, over-lit Susan-world, and the dreary, flat Karen-land.)

Birch does her level best in playing the two characters, but she is not given enough script-wise to do much more than look scared as a bottle blonde, then look scared in a bad, bushy brunet wig. The supporting cast, particularly Toby Stephens as the enigmatic psychiatrist and the two fun, over-the-top actresses who play Karen and Susan's BFFs do themselves proud.

Unfortunately, not much else can be said about such a bland, incompetently-presented horror film. It's not even worth renting, unless you are a card-carrying fan of the Thora Birch Fan Club.

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