Darklands – 1997 | 90 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Middling horror tale of pagan ritual and human sacrifice written and directed by Julian Richards with shades of The Wicker Man and Hammer horror. This low-budget festival favourite is set in a stylised urban landscape around Port Talbot in South Wales and delves deep beneath the tattered Welsh underbelly to discover a strange and utterly deadly netherworld of revivalist Celtic religion. Ex-EastEnder Craig Fairbrass takes the lead role with Jon Finch and Rowena King co-starring in a film of few genuine chills.

A deeply cynical journalist, Truick (Craig Fairbrass), investigates the mysterious death of colleague Rachel Morris’s brother in an industrial accident in South Wales. Truick suspects that a sinister Celtic cult led by fervent Welsh nationalist David Keller (Jon Finch) may be at work in the town and responsible for the death, but his personal life is simultaneously thrown into disarray when a cautionary local vicar tells Truick that he’s adapted and casts doubts on the true identity of his parents. Meanwhile, the avid reporter embarks on a torrid affair with Rachel but is stunned to discover she is in the clutches of the cult and deliberately trying to get pregnant by him. Soon everybody appears to be conspiring to prevent Truick leaving town, and he is deceived into arriving at the setting of a blood-soaked Pagan worship.