ABSENCE OF LIGHT

(A.k.a. THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT).

It's the near-future, a dystopian Los Angeles where senator Crisswell (Rick Scarry) is preparing for the latest elections - due to take place in 6 months' time. But he has a problem: there's an elicit DVD of him having sex with a cute blonde doing the rounds. Worse still, she's pregnant with what is most likely his child.

Enter The Higher Power (Tom Savini), who runs a security agency who specialise in taking care of high profile people's "problems". He sends out two of his handiest thugs - Puritan (Richard Conant) and Sultan (Eric Thornsberry) - to track the girl down and deal with her. This they do, with ruthless and unconscionable efficiency.

Meanwhile, a diligent scientist has stumbled upon what he believes to be the meaning of life, and burnt it onto a CD-ROM after having dubbed it the "Devour" program.

Now, everyone wants said program for their own gains: Crisswell in particular is keen to get his corrupt hands upon it, as are his arch-nemeses - a gang of deadly motorcycle-riding terrorists led by the constantly furious Whiplash (David Hess).

But who will Puritan and Sultan ultimately serve, should they trust the advice of shady informant The Seer (Michael Berryman) and find the sacred disc first ...?

Opening your no-budget sci-fi-horror flick with a quote from old British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is a sign of some ambition - at the very least, on a thematic level.

ABSENCE OF LIGHT is indeed an ambitious feature debut from Patrick Desmond. From the character names and the plot outline, it should already be apparent that this is a film whose script takes in concepts of liberation, fundamental rights and politics, as well as examining the human condition in all its darkest forms.

Visually, the aspirations keep on coming with some impressively stretching FX work for such a skid row production. Digital effects don't always work well when you're working within the confines of a shoestring budget, and much of this does look extremely corny. But that's where the lighter side of Desmond's knowing script comes in handy, allowing for such cheesiness to have its place among the more brutal moments.

At times the film evoked the likes of low-rent 80s punk films such as CAR CEMETERY and REPO MAN. It also pays very obvious homage to the MAD MAX films on more than a couple of occasions.

Finally, in terms of ambition, Desmond must be applauded for pulling together several big genre names to add weight to his supporting cast. Along with Savini, Hess and Berryman, we also get treated to stalwarts Caroline Munro, Tom Sullivan, Tony Todd and Kevin van Hentenryck hamming it up for the benefit of the lucky director.

The film has some good gags, a breakneck pace and oodles of agreeable energy. But it's very, very low budget and can't help but feel amateurish throughout - despite the talents involved. Still, some decent minor gore and interesting concepts keep it ticking over during its inoffensive 76-minute running time.

The film is presented in non-anamorphic 1.85:1 (the original aspect ratio) and looks somewhat soft for the main part. It's not a great presentation but, given the micro budget digital origins, I don't imagine it having looked that great from the offset. Colours are reasonably strong but some ghosting was evident and darker scenes don't always hold up against compression too well.

The English 2.0 audio track is, happily, more stable.

Beyond the static main menu page, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the main feature via 12 chapters.

A nice bunch of extras begins with some welcome behind-the-scenes footage. Unfortunately this is too brief at only 2 minutes in length, but at least does demonstrate how Desmond handled his starry cast and gave them space to ad lib.

4 minutes of deleted scenes are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and don't add anything revelatory to the overall picture.

"Let There Be Light" is the best bonus feature on offer, a 13-minute documentary with cast and crew sound-bites interspersed between more valid on-set footage.

A 2-minute interview with Munro finds her in good-looking form, speaking in 2007 about the fun she had making the film - and begging Desmond to use her again when he makes it as a big-time director. Not if, you hear, but when ...

Finally, "FX Secrets" is 5-minutes of Desmond commenting on top of behind-the-scenes footage and revealing how certain FX were achieved (including stealing tricks that Savini pioneered some three decades earlier).

Not listed as an extra but also on the disc is a non-optional 40-second video introduction to the film from Berryman.

MVM's disc is decent enough for this interesting, aspiring but flawed no-budget genre homage. Worth a look - especially if you've a yen for seeking out familiar faces in recent horror efforts.

Review by Stuart Willis