It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Beautiful, moving film.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I watched this under the title DARKNESS DESCENDS which is a little more palatable than the original. Sadly as it turns out this thriller is a complete waste of time, with a plot that just meanders along without anything in the way of purpose or drive. It's just another example of Danny Trejo grabbing a pay cheque while not really caring about the quality of the material in which he appears.The story is supposedly about a young and bland film maker who is making a documentary about the plight of the homeless living beneath New York (although the movie was filmed in Los Angeles, which is a poor substitute). There's a lot of discussion with weird characters living beneath the streets and by weird characters I mean actors giving exaggerated, caricaturish performances. Trejo is some gang leader trying to unite his followers with some semi-religious speeches to start a new war against mankind.The problem with DARKNESS DESCENDS is that it has no idea what type of film it wants to be. There are a few thriller aspects but they take up less than half of the running time. The dialogue is heavy and dull. There are even a few fight scenes but an action film this isn't. The whole thing is shot on the cheap in close up shots and the ending just fizzles away to nothing. It's not worth your time.

When I seen this sitting in the DVD bin I thought scores of people would be scrambling to get the only copy but that wasn't the case. After I watched it I learned why nobody wanted it.A lady decides to do a documentary on the homeless people living under the subway system who look more like Survivor contestants. Danny Trejo has more screen time than usual playing a gang leader who is always battling the other homeless people. The whole thing is just atrocious giving you some time to catch up on your sleep.I'll try and get in store credit for this DVD telling them something is wrong with it. I won't be lying.

Review: What an awful movie. I lost interest after the first 15 minutes and I really struggled to stay awake through the rest. I didn't know what was happening from one scene to the next and I didn't really care. I know that it was about this underworld with good and evil living there but that was about it. Everyone that starred in the movie was overacting except for a Trejo who was pretty cool. By the end of the film I didn't know who was who or what was what and I wasn't about to rewind the film to find out. It amazing me how films like these actually get a budget. Awful!Round-Up: None of the actors in this film, except for Trejo, looks familiar so I can't really comment about there previous work or there careers. The leading character got on my nerves after a while and his whole moody persona was annoying. I understand that the character had a shady past and the whole dark underworld feel was needed for the character, but it was hard to watch. Basically it was another bad choice on my behalf but I'm sure that this type of film has it's audience, somewhere in the wilderness. I recommend this movie to people who are into there thrillers about a dark underworld controlled by a evil man who doesn't like outsiders. 1/10

Naive documentary film maker Chelsea goes into the underground of NYC to investigate the homeless people living in abandoned subway tunnels. She encounters senile former military, a strange artist, teen run aways, crazed former drug addicts, a disgraced ex-cop (Jake), and a self- righteous gang (the Chosen) of violent cretins led by Angel.Chelsea interviews a few of the cops (whose leaders want some action against the Chosen), Angel himself, the artist, two teen runaways, and Jake. The Chosen have it out for Jake and the teens.So, what happens in the inevitable show down?-----Scores-----Cinematography: 7/10 Usually clear enough.Sound: 3/10 Bad leveling. The music played during intervals often seemed irrelevant.Acting: 3/10 Danny Trejo showed his usual screen presence. Louis Mandylor was competent with the few lines he was given. The rest, not so good.Screenplay: 1/10 Were there any points to this film? Not that I saw. Also, the clothes worn were too clean, the people looked way too clean and too healthy. How is it that Jake has a new, spotless bottle of expensive looking booze? How does he have brand new candles in perfectly clean holders? One of the women in the tunnels has a new looking guitar; what are the chances that would not be stolen? The preaching (from Angel and from the group who hang with the artist) seemed out of place, as did the spouting of statistics.