Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1145 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-16
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 144 minutes

Synopsis

This spoof series invites you to see a 'long lost' 1980s TV chiller from acclaimed novelist, Garth Marenghi. With hammy acting and a ridiculously shoddy filmmaking technique, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace makes for seriously funny viewing.

From the Back Cover

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was originally filmed in the 1980s and has since earned a cult reputation as one of the most terrifying and radical television programmes ever made. Despite this, none of the episodes have ever been seen before now (although the show enjoyed a brief run in Peru).

Darkplace was scripted and directed by the best-selling horror writer Garth Marenghi, known to thousands as the author of such classic chillers as "The Ooze" (can water die?), "Afterbirth" (a mutated placenta attacks Bristol) and "Black Fang" (where rats learn to drive). In addition, Marenghi starred as the show's lead character, Dr Rick Dagless--a maverick doctor battling against the evil forces lurking beneath a hospital in Romford.

Even now, Garth warns that the show, in its effort to "radicalise men's minds", may prove "too subversive, too dangerous, too damn scary." The wait for the most famous 'lost' project in horror goes on, but not for much longer...

Customer Reviews

"I'm not Jesus Christ, I've come to accept that now."
When this initially aired it was heavily promoted on TV and Radio, but it never seemed to do very well and become one of those forgotten series.

Thankfully it had quite a dedicated cult following and the DVD release does justice to this truly original and purposefully 'bad' comedy.

This spoof TV series has all the 'cast' in character throughout. Providing talking head moments where they reflect on the `Horror Hospital Drama' they give their opinions and pad out the running time because many of the original tapes have been destroyed. Garth has an embarrassingly inflated idea about his own work and regularly explains how deep and powerful his message was.

The special effects are fantastically naff and the dodgy acting is captured to perfection. Especially that of Dean Learner who keeps glancing at the camera and having his scenes spliced together to cover up his mistakes, this leads to great moments where, for example; in a split second he is suddenly holding his drink in the other hand.

This DVD has great re-watch value. The plot of each episode is relatively funny, but it's the individual moments which ensure you have laugh after laugh.

In a nutshell: Remember the many cheesy American TV series of the eighties? Well this is the British version - lost for twenty years we can now see it in its (near) full(-ish) glory. Garth Marenghi's Dark Place looks shoddy - but it takes a lot of skill to make it look as natural as it does. This is an original comedy with a raft of features including a cast commentary (again all in character) and a full length version of the song "One Track Lover" which will have you singing it for days afterwards. I absolutely love this series - it's not often that you get something so unique, and - dare I say it? Yes I do ...genius!

"water, water, everywhere...
...and not a drop to drink" - Coleridge, Samuel, T.

Darkplace is one of the best observed spoofs of 70's/80's tv shows I have seen. The badly edited overdubs alone had me in hysterics. It's up there with Funky Squad (fans of DarkPlace should check out Funky Squad as well by the way, it was an Australian parody of 70's cop shows that went out about 10 years ago).

The only criticism I have of the DVD is that the commentaries, done 'in character' by the actors, are not funny...in a way, the fact that the episodes are peppered by short inserts from Garth Marenghi and Dean Learner - explaining how they "made" Darkplace - mean that the shows have their own commentary in the first place. The extra documentaries, 'Darkplace: In Memorium', and 'Horrificata Illuminata' are highly amusing ("The bible is one of the first horror novels. It's certainly the first locust novel") There's a lot of other bonus material.

Another thing that made me appreciate Darkplace - having been a fan of trashy horror fiction in the past - is the uncanny similarities between Garth Marenghi's "novels" and those of the horror writer Shaun Hutson, right down to the concept of maggots emerging from people, and slightly corny one-word titles like 'Crabs' (re: Shaun Hutson - 'Slugs'), even his books' artwork and font are the same...it can't be coincidence!

Overall, definitely worth buying, and ranks alongside the cream of UK comedy of recent years.

Fantastiche
For those who don't know, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a spoof horror eighties TV show, made in 2004, with inserts from the characters who played the parts of the TV show where they look back on it. The premise is that the show was pulled from the air by Channel 4 before the first episode was broadcast and only because of the paucity of quality television today, they allowed it to be broadcast.

Its targets are broad, from Jim Herbert style horror writers, through British character actors, to TV shows like Miami Vice and Quantum Leap where execution and/or concept are ridiculously straightfaced for the material presented. Apart from poking fun at these targets, there are great visual gags, some atrocious puns and hamming it up that are just the right side of silly. It is a fantastically accurate and funny show. And that we are only just seeing a followup on our TV screens is too sad for words.

The extras are great, with in character commentaries from Garth, Dean Learner and Todd Rivers. Spoof documentaries abound and there are a couple of cut scenes and test footage. The only shame is that we don't get some genuine comments and anecdotes from the performers. But that's just a slight niggle.

This is great.