Old passions and new bloodlust develop in DARKROOM, a Nico Mastorakis-produced body count film out on Blu-ray from 88 Films' Slasher Classics Collection.

Young advertising executive Janet (Jill Pierce, KICKBOXER 4) returns home to the family farm for a visit after two years after a fight with her photographer boyfriend Steve (Jeff Arbaugh, BACKSTREET DREAMS) over her commitment-phobia. She does not find a lot of sympathy from her old-fashioned mother Nora (Stella Kastner, DEMON WIND), crotchety Gramps (John O'Connor), hot-to-trot younger sister Cindy (Sara Lee Wade), or cousins Mark (Allen Lieberman) and Perry (Aarin Teich, MIRROR OF DEATH) who her mother took in after a fire ten years before that claimed the lives of their parents and her photographer husband; indeed, they are more welcoming than her when Steve shows up unexpectedly for dinner. When wild sister Paula does not return the next morning after going out to break if off with weird former farmhand George (Timothy Hicks, WARBIRDS) who lives in a rundown trailer by the river, Janet, Steve, and Cindy agree to go retrieve her for worried Nora. After a violent run-in with George, the three discover Paula's dead body in the trailer. The news of her death sends her mother into shock but the others find their attempts to reach the police cut off by an lurking axe-wielding shutterbug who has been memorializing his neighborhood crimes using the basement darkroom.

The last and probably most traditional horror film in producer Nico Mastorakis' filmography, DARKROOM is also the least. A standard body count pic spiked with a couple murders, the film just goes through the motions with cut phone lines, dead car batteries, people separating from the group to go for help, and a villain who brutally murders everyone else but then just decides to knock out the hero. The killer's backstory is old hat while his intentions towards the final girl do not elicit the same queasiness as the final revelations of Mastorakis' previous production GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE. Additional victims are trotted in and characters conveniently disappear for spaces to provide red herrings but the real killer's identity is easily guessed. What the film has going for it is a picturesque location, some brutal if not flashy murders, and mostly competent performances but seasoned horror fans will not find much thrilling in this thriller. Child actor Eric Foster (CRY WILDERNESS) appears in flashback scenes as the younger version of one of the characters in shots that might actually be unused material from Mastorakis' previous production GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE (that film's director Peter Rader is credited here as executive in charge of production). Director Terrence O'Hara moved on almost immediately to episodic television with series like RENEGADE and SILK STALKINGS and, more recently, multiple episodes from the various NCIS franchises.

DARKROOM was released direct to video by Quest Entertainment, the same master appeared on DVD first from Simitar Entertainment in 1999 before the film was remastered for Image Entertainment's 2003 fullscreen DVD. Mastorakis' 4K restoration from the original camera negative debuted in 2019 on Blu-ray/DVD combo from Vinegar Syndrome. 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray utilizes the same master. The film itself might not be particularly good but it looks fantastic starting with the red gels of the opening title sequence and a spotless image typical of the production standards of Mastorakis' output even at a time when theatrical release became less likely. The unambitious Ultrastereo mix is offered up as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track as well as a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix, and optional English HoH subtitles are provided.