You may know filmmaker Darin Scott primarily as a writer and producer. He got started with the wonderful little 80s horror anthology Offspring (starring Vincent Price) and then moved around the various genres, producing some really cool films such as Stepfather II, Menace II Society and an underrated fave, Tales from the Hood (another one he also wrote). Mr. Scott seems to be spreading his directing wings lately. He recently completed a psychological thriller called Something Wicked (starring Brittany Murphy) and has just unveiled his newest horror opus Dark House at Shriekfest this past weekend to a sold out audience. And it was amazing.

The movie starts with a gory prologue centering on the massacre of several children who were residing at the local foster home of one Ms. Darrode (Diane Salinger in one of the creepiest performances I’ve seen in a long time). A little girl who is somehow involved in the gruesome scene spends the next fourteen years trying to uncover her repressed memories of that horrible day. Now a suicidal adult on tons of anti-depressants, Claire (Meghan Ory) has found a love for acting and wants to rid herself of the meds that keep her in a zombie-like state. Her therapist suggests that going inside the house might stir up something. A little later in acting class a man named Walston Ray (Jeffrey Combs, and yes, I’m sure you get the reference) presents a wonderful opportunity. An infamous showman who turns out incredible amusement parks, he’s now bought the Darrode house and is repurposing it into a haunted house attraction. He needs these acting students to give a more human element to his magical world of freaks, demons and madmen. Claire convinces her friends to sign up and off to the Darrode’s they go.

The house is a veritable circus of horrors, full of fantastic imagery and stunning set-pieces – all thanks to modern technology. But science might not be playing a part in the real terror lurking inside this new ghostly attraction, ‘cuz it’s haunted for real and it wants Claire and everyone else in the house!

There is much to love about Dark House. The cast is in top form with Combs and Salinger taking the highest honors for just being so dang wonderful. Combs is always amazing, but I was expecting to see him in a far smaller role. I was glad he was through the entire picture playing the part of a great showman in a way a lesser actor would fail at attempting. The rest of the cast is up to the challenge of keeping up with Combs contagious energy, with a special nod to Shelly Cole who took the bitchy goth chick role and made her not only real, but likable. In fact, I really enjoyed how the movie set up the basic slasher stereotypes (the final girl, the evil slutty girl, the token black guy, the jock, ect…) and then made them work together as a cohesive group of people struggling to survive one crappy night. It was nice to see the movie create strong characters without losing the pace with unneeded sub-plots.

I’ll be honest, I just adored Dark House. It creates a striking balance of horror and humor. That’s not an easy recipe, but the way it was played out had the audience laughing and gasping at the same time. This is definitely a crowd film, with choice dialogue, lots of gory goodness and some genuine suspense. It harkens back to some of my favorite supernatural horror films of the 80s such as Waxwork and Superstition. In fact, Dark House is a movie that pays homage to so many other films while still maintaining its own identity. I might be showing off my horror nerd colors to say I saw a little Bad Ronald, a little Trilogy of Terror, touches of Popcorn laced with a little bit of Lucio Fulci’s Black Cat, but maybe that was part of fun of watching Dark House. It’s total popcorn fare that takes you back to the grand days of the 80s, where the point of the movie was to astound and entertain you.