An Aliens (1986) rip-off marketed as a sequel to The Terminator (1984), Shocking Dark is a mostly dull slice of Italian schlock hell from the tail end of the 80’s. And when I say Aliens rip-off, I mean Bruno Mattei (Vincent Dawn) and Claudio Fragasso (Clayde [not Clyde] Anderson) may as well have gone into a theater playing Aliens, filmed it, and sold a bootleg with new cover art. Obviously I’ve come to expect Italian trash cinema to be shameless; that’s no surprise. But I was taken aback at how bold this movie is in the almost beat-for-beat mimicry on display. Still there’s enough trashy charm to warrant a mild recommendation provided you’ve got a few friends and some potent potables on hand.





Sometime in the future, Venice has become uninhabitable due to water and air pollution. A group of researches from the (totally) Tubular Corporation, living in the tunnels under Venice to find a solution, send a distress signal after being attacked by mutant creatures. In lieu of space marines, the Mega Force is being sent in to investigate and rescue survivors. In tow is Dr. Sara Drumbull, the film’s de facto Ripley, and company plant Samuel Fuller whose villainy Fragasso doesn’t even try to conceal. Seriously, this dude is dressed like your typical dystopian future-Nazi prison guard. Like I know he’s just a Burke clone but the movie could have at least tried to make him seem like he might be a good guy. At least pretend to care, movie. The Mega Force is largely insufferable. Where Aliens’ marines had a rapport of ball-busting camaraderie, Shocking Dark’s seem mostly like they just hate each other’s fucking guts. The worst of the bunch is Koster, the film’s Vasquez clone. Vasquez was probably the most obnoxious part of Aliens but she does not hold a candle to Koster. Her first line, directed right into the camera is “All right, ya buncha pussies! I’m back, and I’m kickin’ ass!” I’m not sure what I did to piss off the movie so badly, but I felt like I was being personally attacked. I guess it’s ok though cause she goes on to berate almost every other member of the squad. This is not the Geretta Giancarlo I knew from Demons (1985).





The movie progresses much the way you’d think a direct rip-off of Aliens would. Our marines find themselves in a subterranean sci-fi facility, one-by-one getting picked off by mutant Cthulhu fishmen looking creatures, one of the marines gets cocoon-ed and chestbursted, they find their own Newt, not-Ripley and not-Newt get locked in a room together by not-Burke to be dispatched by the creatures, the facility gets set to self destruct, not-Ripley loses not-Newt but finds her with a wrist tracker. Instead of a showdown with a Queen-type alien, the Burke stand-in is revealed to be a cyborg (the Arnold Schwarzenegger type, not the Lance Henriksen type) and not-Ripley fights him (kinda). There’s a good portion of the film where he’s holding a wound on his arm to hide his metallic wiry interior instead of just rolling down his sleeve. Anyways not-Ripley and not-Newt end up going back in time to 1980’s Venice to save the city from pollution. Just like Aliens.





Shocking Dark is entertaining for its shortcomings. The bulky, rubbery mutants look goofy but it is satisfying to see them get blasted in their faces by the Mega Force’s shotguns. The Mega Force’s costumes are pretty great too. They’re almost like Power Rangers crossed with a Rollerball team. They even copy the motion tracker thingy from Aliens, but there’s no actual screen on it with blinky dots, so the actress holding it has to tell us that there are a buncha creatures getting closer. And of course with Claudio Fragasso’s legendary butchering of American syntax and slang (i.e. Troll 2), we get some choice dialogue. When approaching a enemy gunman there is the immortal line, “Let’s get out the KY so we can shaft him real good,” and exchanges like -“Why didn’t you kill us before?” -“Because I was waiting for the right time. That is to say, now.” This movie isn’t going to blow your mind. Its just so similar to Aliens that it induces more apathy than joy. The best rip-offs are the ones that ape style or setting or mood and then go off running with their own wild ideas. Shocking Dark merely copies and pastes characters, plot points, and even music cues from superior films. If you ever wanted to see Jack Black and Mos Def make sweded versions of James Cameron’s seminal sci-fi action classics, you might get some milage out of this movie. But if you want top quality Italian sci-fi schlock, there are better movies to watch first.





https://severin-films.com/shop/shocking-dark-bluray/ So you’ve seen like 90% of this before only done way, way better with way, way more production value. Butis entertaining for its shortcomings. The bulky, rubbery mutants look goofy but it is satisfying to see them get blasted in their faces by the Mega Force’s shotguns. The Mega Force’s costumes are pretty great too. They’re almost like Power Rangers crossed with a Rollerball team. They even copy the motion tracker thingy from, but there’s no actual screen on it with blinky dots, so the actress holding it has to tell us that there are a buncha creatures getting closer. And of course with Claudio Fragasso’s legendary butchering of American syntax and slang (i.e.), we get some choice dialogue. When approaching a enemy gunman there is the immortal line, “Let’s get out the KY so we can shaft him real good,” and exchanges like -“Why didn’t you kill us before?” -“Because I was waiting for the right time. That is to say, now.” This movie isn’t going to blow your mind. Its just so similar tothat it induces more apathy than joy. The best rip-offs are the ones that ape style or setting or mood and then go off running with their own wild ideas.merely copies and pastes characters, plot points, and even music cues from superior films. If you ever wanted to see Jack Black and Mos Def make sweded versions of James Cameron’s seminal sci-fi action classics, you might get some milage out of this movie. But if you want top quality Italian sci-fi schlock, there are better movies to watch first.

akaDir. Bruno Mattei