ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: Darklands tells the story of a newspaper reporter lured into a conspiracy of pagan rituals and human sacrifice whilst investigating the death of a steelworker. 

With Darklands, director Julian Richards delivers a riveting fright-fare mashup of traditional U.K. folk horror and set pieces with a postindustrial vibe. The result is an intriguing work that feels like an elevator pitch of “The Wicker Man (1973)  meets The Road Warrior/Mad Max 2 (1981).”

The film also boasts noir elements as journalist Frazier Tuck (Craig Fairbass) assists newly assigned cub reporter Rachel Morris (Rowena King) in investigating the workplace death of her brother, which seems suspicious to her despite what the local authorities say. This leads him down a deadly path filled with conspiracy theories, modern-day Celtic pagans, nationalist political figures, and men of the cloth, to name but a few of the characters, with a super supporting cast on hand.

Twenty-nine years on, many of the elements seem familiar — some obviously did so as soon as the film was originally released — but there’s plenty of interest here for scare-fare aficionados to warrant a revisit or a first-time watch. 

The remastered Director’s Cut of Darklands, from  Jinga Films, has been released worldwide on multiple streaming platforms including Amazon, Sky, Apple TV, Plex, Google, Fandango, Tubi, Fawesome, and Philo.