''Against the Dark'' is a 2009 American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

horror film starring

Steven Seagal Steven Frederic Seagal (; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and martial artist. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and eventually ended up running his father-in-l ...

and directed by Richard Crudo. the film was released on

direct-to-DVD Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

in the United States on February 10, 2009. In a post-apocalyptic world, destroyed by a disease, which turns humans into infected strongly resembling

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deat ...

s, Seagal plays Tao, the leader of a squad of ex-military

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

s who are attempting to find and rescue a group of survivors trapped in a hospital. This is Steven Seagal's first American horror film.

Plot

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

disease has overwhelmed humanity, turning nearly everyone into blood-thirsty infected who resemble vampires and

zombies A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in wh ...

. There is no known cure and very few survivors left fighting "against the dark". Tao (Seagal) is in charge of a group of vampire/zombie hunters. The survivors in the hospital are shown to be scared, isolated and untrusting. As the characters work their way through the hospital, they drift apart numerous times, often getting lost and attacked. To make matters worse for the survivors, a massive army base is planning to bomb the area at dawn. The survivors must get to the one functioning exit from the hospital before the emergency power runs out and they are shut inside. In addition, many of the stairways and elevators are blocked off, forcing them to make their way level by level. Meanwhile, Cross (

Linden Ashby Clarence Linden Garnett Ashby III (born May 23, 1960) is an American actor and director. On television, he portrayed Brett Cooper on the final two seasons of the Fox soap opera ''Melrose Place'' (1997–1999) and Sheriff Noah Stilinski on all ...

) tries to prevent Lieutenant Waters (

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

) from unleashing a bombing raid on the hospital. A number of survivors and a hunter are killed and a different hunter is infected as they make their way out of the hospital. A survivor is captured by a human to be fed on by his infected daughter, but is rescued by Tao. As the humans make their way out, a horde of infected chase them. As they exit the hospital just in time before the power fails the vampires become trapped inside. The surviving humans then run as jet planes bomb the forsaken hospital.

Cast

Reception

Rob Hunter of FilmSchoolRejects.com says that although the film could have been entertaining, "the idea and the execution are worlds apart" and questions the strange decisions of the survivors. Hunter praises

Tanoai Reed Tanoai Reed (born February 10, 1974) is an American stuntman and actor. He is the cousin and stunt double of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Reed was born in Honolulu, Hawaii of Samoan and Norwegian, Swedish, Irish descent. After the separation of ...

as the one bright spot of the film, delivering top-notch fight scenes, even if his acting could do with improvement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Against The Dark 2009 films 2009 direct-to-video films 2009 horror films 2000s action thriller films 2000s action horror films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2000s science fiction action films 2000s science fiction horror films 2000s science fiction thriller films 2000s vigilante films American films about revenge American action horror films American post-apocalyptic films American action thriller films American science fiction action films American science fiction horror films American vampire films American vigilante films American zombie films Direct-to-video action films Direct-to-video horror films Films about battles and military operations Films about violence Sony Pictures direct-to-video films

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links