Overrated and overhyped

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I'm Garth Marenghi. Author, dreamweaver, visionary, plus actor. You're about to enter the world of my imagination. You are entering my Darkplace. Garth Marenghi is genius, and as Dean Lerner himself said:"Garth is the most significant artist that I have ever worked with, and I have worked with Lulu and four other people.". And when Dean Learner says that. At the beginning of every episode Garth Marenghi reads excerpt from his novels that only further proves his masterful writing abilities (Mike stared in disbelief as his hands fell of from 'Slasher'.). Music by Stig Baasvik, based on melodies originally whistled by Garth Marenghi.'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace' is fantastic horror and behind the scenes spoof. Probably the best there ever is. It ran only six episodes before the show was cancelled because the low viewer numbers, and it is sad. But on the other hand, the long run would have become repetitive and finally turned stale. Six twenty five minute long episodes is perfect length for such absurdity. The writing is masterfully bad as the acting and directing (all of this is on purpose of course). Constant continuity errors and bad dialogue offers laugh after laugh. But not most of the jokes are on your face, at least half the jokes are very subtle that you notice them on the second (or fourth or even on the sixth) viewing, or when someone points it out for you. TV show inside TV show have never been funnier, and the really funny part about it is that I actually cared about the show and characters Garth Marenghi had created. Gun doting doctors in hospital constantly plagued by supernatural forces can never be any cooler than in Garth Marenghi's imagination.

This 2004 Channel 4 comedy series is a parody that presents itself as a badly-made, previously unscreened, 1980s horror series that's interspersed with the creator talking about it as though it's a masterpiece. It's just one bad joke over and over again - someone thinks that an awful series that he made two decades earlier is brilliant, but it's actually terrible. Neither the fake series - nor the creator talking about it - are funny in the slightest.

This show is brilliant and so clever. On first glance it looks like a cheap spoof but the more you watch it the more details you notice. The film used is authentic 80's quality, there's a million tiny deliberate errors and the whole show is a brilliant stab at horror writers that take themselves way too seriously. There's recognisable bits of many a horror writer in there.The cast is fantastic and nearly every line is memorable and funny. What's really annoying though is that Ch4 did their usual balls up with the show. Because it won't sell overseas (see some of the comments from the colonies on this one) and because it's hard to categorise by dull marketing types the show got next to no advertising and was thrown on at something like 11pm on a Thursday evening. Viewing figures where therefore low and the dull marketing people could nod and feel they were right in not backing it in the first place.Seriously, it deserved a second series on the strength of it's one song alone! In these sad days when tripe like Three Pints of Lager and a Packet of Desperation gets 7/10 on here it's good to see original and very funny comedy, even if it doesn't last long.

Darkplace is absolutely fantastic!!! Some may not get it, but for the ones with a brilliant eye for comedy and attention to detail, this in my books has yet to be beat. I love the office (UK) but this just pips it at the post. So many subtle strokes of wit and genius are hidden under the mask of the pretend fake cheap sets etc.Little nuances of dialogue, and facial expressions that could be easily missed by the casual viewer. Amazing quotes, and the setting is so authentic.Some cool quotes...Padre to Dagless " You're the most sensitive man i know. And I know god!" Sanchez. "Its egg in soup, serve that with a pork-pie/sausage roll." Thornton reed" And I've worked with Lulu! and 5 other people." I have just realised that merely writing down these quotes will do little to prove its comedy. Its all about the delivery of the lines and the comedic timing. Every single line of dialogue uttered by Sanchez and his actor alter-ego Todd Rivers, is pure gold. I'm glad he made it into the rather weak "IT crowd" in series 2, he truly made that series worth watching. The brilliant music video played in episode 6 "Red hot lover" is worthy of recognition alone. It even beats the "Rick rolled" video of Rick Astley on the web. Hilarious! I truly hope that Darkplace gets a much needed second series. Man to man with dean learner was good, but it suffered a lack of Sanchez.I also read rumours that a movie of Darkplace was getting made. I really hope this comes true.Come on channel-4, MORE DARKPLACE PLEASE!!!!!!!