Aspiring auteur Steve Barkett made but two movies during his life, which is two more than most of us. The first, The Aftermath, from way back in 1982, was a passion project that took him years to complete. His followup from 1991, Empire of the Dark, saw Barkett inject the same energy and persistence he displayed in his first movie, and the same anachronistic tendencies.
He directed, he wrote, he starred, he edited, he performed his own stunts, and he, dream of dreams, cast his own son as his co-star. A filmmaker with deficiencies in storytelling ability, acting, physicality, and much else required to make a film, Barkett’s movies are a testament to his force of will. Barkett also drew influences from 1950’s sci-fi and monster flicks, and shot his films like something from the early ’70s. Makeup and latex mask effects swing from b-movie quality to off-the-rack Halloween store fare. Mannequins take bullets to the head with red corn syrupy splatter. Creature effects are a mix of amateur puppetry and stop motion, including what looks like repurposed action figures. At some point in his life, Barkett became interested in broadsword fighting, and incorporated this new skill into his movie. Whatever doubts he may have harbored while making his film, and all artists are plagued by doubts, he cast aside and plowed through. Add Barkett to one’s mental list of perseverance personified, all you aspiring filmmakers. He made shit, but it’s fun shit.
Barkett plays Richard Flynn, a cop in the small town of Lava Springs, somewhere in the Cascades. One evening Flynn receives a frantic call from love interest Angela (Tera Hendrickson). He flies to her rescue, and finds himself transported to a sprawling series of caverns and rock passages. Is he in hell or some other nether region? Possible. In reality it’s an obvious series of miniatures, matte paintings, process photography, and forced perspective shots. It looks cheap, but in an endearing way, infected with the same earnestness as everything else Barkett did.
Flynn makes his way through the cave and interrupts an occult ceremony performed by this flick’s rarely seen antagonists, Arkham and Brian Devree (Richard Harrison and Dan Speaker). Those two are slowly, ever so slowly, lowering knives to sacrifice Angela and her baby. Flynn, at Angela’s pleading, saves the baby while Angela is killed by Arkham. Flynn kills Arkham and Devree, and flees to safety.
Flash forward twenty years, and Flynn is now a bounty hunter, keeping the small town streets of Lava Springs clear of dangerous fugitives. Angela’s now adult son, Terry (Christopher Barkett), shows up in town with evidence that Arkham and Devree are somehow still alive, and carrying out another series of ritual sacrifices in order to bring forth demons on Earth. Teamed up with former cop buddy Eddie Green (John Henry Richardson), it’s up to Flynn to save the world, by killing hordes of robed demon spawn with his broadsword.
Barkett was aspirational with his storytelling. His head must have been swimming with ideas, and he tried to get them all onto film. The effect is scatterbrained, but he had just enough skill to keep things focused. And that focus was squarely on himself. Characters of little significance come and go in this movie, but there are few scenes where Flynn isn’t in charge.
Barkett’s greatest strength is in pacing. He never let his film linger too long on expository stuff, placing himself in action scenes at regular intervals. He even got his son Christopher in on the action, and, in fact, Christopher looked more proficient with the broadsword, displaying youthful athletic ability that had since left his father. That didn’t stop Barkett from tumbling around with gusto.
There are many reasons people like bad movies. The most important being that people like them, and gatekeeping film snobs can go pound sand. Empire of the Dark is a prime example of the shitty movie that one laughs with more than at. Barkett’s style is infectious. He didn’t lack self awareness. He just didn’t seem to care. It’s clear he made his films for himself, and, by extension, everyone else who appreciates a movie freed from the restraints imposed by executives without an ounce of vision beyond dollars and cents.
Empire of the Dark has no business being as watchable as it is. Yet, Barkett and company managed to craft a rollicking flick packed with cheap fun and shitty filmmaking moments, including an extended day for night sequence, where it appears the film lab never got the instruction to tint the picture. Half the scene is clearly night, while the other half is very much daytime. But, it was an important enough sequence that Barkett kept it in the film, continuity be damned. That’s the kind of spirit that makes this movie a great watch. Empire of the Dark is shitty gold, displacing Strike Commando 2 at #58 in the Watchability Index, making Steve Barkett two for two in Shitty Movie Sundays. Don’t lament how few films Barkett made. He packed an entire career’s worth of mirth into his two films.