The Story:
When the film starts, before I even get to the storyline, let me say that this movie looks dated. It was made in 1980, but was most assuredly filmed during 1979 (I was proven right later when listening to the director commentary and he made mention of it). It has that 70s look and feel to it—including the soundtrack, which is a symphony of 70s soundtrack cheese. If the film had been any good, I may have been able to overlook the muzak, but I just couldn't because it just added to the dated feel (which makes me wonder, do kids today look at a classic like, say, Halloween, and think it looks dated?).

Anyway, the movie opens with some guy going diving while a bunch of important looking guys in suits watch from the shore, and then panic when the diver never comes back up. We don't really know who the diver is, but there is a media frenzy, and clearly, politics are involved. Then we cut to an outdoor scene of a birthday party. There's a young boy with a bald head who, it turns out, has hemophilia (thanks again to the director commentary on second viewing), and he's being eyed by…why, who's that? Is that Pennywise nearly 10 years before he made an appearance in a Stephen King novel? Well, maybe not, but he sure looked like him. As the party progresses, we soon discover the sick kid is the son of a rich senator, Nick Rast (David Hemmings) and his wife Sandra (Carmen Duncan). Suddenly, I felt like I was watching a really bad rip off of the Omen . Next thing I know, the kid is deathly ill in bed, the mother and father are standing over him, and some dude with an afro literally materializes at their balcony door in a funky getup that's part cult wardrobe, part alien outfit. He comes to the boy, magically heals him with his hands, and the next thing I know, the supernatural man, Gregory (Robert Powell), is living with the family. No, really. The very next moment. Like, the next scene. No explanation as to why they just totally adopted him into their life. Oh wait, yes there is. Because he magically healed their son. And that's pretty much the premise of the movie. Seems everyone is sort of under Gregory's spell, and he may be able to transform into a raven (oh, sorry, not raven. Magpie. Thanks again, director). Gregory begins teaching the boy how to do magical things, seduces the wife, and frightens and pisses off the senator, who is being pushed by some big time politicians to become governor while trying to deal with the disappearing body in the water, which belonged to another politician.

We watch—well, I'm not really sure what we watch—but the boy just gets weirder, the mother becomes unsympathetically detached (and horny for Gregory), and the senator is supposed to be the one to make things all better. And the mysterious supernatural visitor Gregory freaks out some people, mesmerizes others. There's a gratuitous boob shot when he sees the young maid in the bathroom (which it seems is explained later) and when there's a big important political party at the house, he comes downstairs looking like David Bowie, circa 1974, fancy, star-like eye makeup, tight black leather outfit and all, and puts on a magical illusion performance for the guests. I really got a feeling I was now watching an Omen/Rocky Horror Picture Show hybrid. From the party scene, all hell breaks loose, and we race to a convoluted ending. I won't spoil the ending, mostly because I pretty much had no idea what was supposed to be happening, and didn't really care.

The scariest moment of the movie was a cheap "dog flies in from side of screen" scare, and the funniest moment was when supernatural Gregory appears for no apparent reason in some sort of court jester costume, and the senator asks, "What the hell are you supposed to be anyway?" Gregory gave some fairy tale explanation sci-fi lovers might get, but I was too busy smiling over the fact that someone finally said something logical in the film. Oh yeah, and the director mentioned in the commentary that the movie was a modern telling of Rasputin. Gotta love that commentary. Maybe I should have watched Dark Forces with the commentary first.

No blood or gore to speak of at all, and there were a couple of special effects that were not even vaguely special. Pretty laughable, as was the whole movie, and not in a so-bad-it's-good way. Really seems like a movie that was trying to cash in on all the "supernatural forces attack family with child" flicks that were so prevalent in those days.

Video:
The movie is presented in an anamorphic 16x9 widescreen format. When the film first began, sure, it had that slight graininess of films made during that period (which is half their charm), but I was also led into a false sense of security, because it looked rather vivid to me. But I soon realized what the trick was. The saturation left me soaking wet in rainbow colors. Even in scenes taking place at night, the colors were bleeding unnaturally bright—and watch out for red most of all. Sure it gave the film a rather fresh appearance, but when the screen would go black now and then, the reason for the saturation became clear. The film was actually marred by non-stop specks, flaws and faults in the print that showed up terribly on the black screen, but were hidden most of the time by the vivid colors. It was like they tried to beautify a film that was showing lots of wear.

Sound:
The film is presented in Dolby mono. The sound was pretty sharp and clear, but I did have to crank my surround receiver way up to actually hear it. As seems to be a trend with audio mixing these days, the dialogue was always at a much lower decibel than the "action" scenes.

Extras:
Isolated Music Score—according to the commentary, this score, by Brian May, has won numerous awards. I wasn't impressed enough to want to have to sit through the movie with just the music.

Commentary by director Simon Wincer and producer Antony I. Gennene—I'd say this was one of the best features of the DVD. The director had a lot to say, and gave good background information, trivia, and actually helped explain what they were aiming for in this movie—none of which I would have gotten if he hadn't told me. The producer, on the other hand, tended to go off on unrelated tangents, and the director was constantly bringing the talk back to the film. I couldn't help but smile when the director made a comment about the need for the "suspension of disbelief," because even with a running time of 95 minutes, that was asking way too much.

English/French/Spanish—you can listen to it in whichever of the three languages you please. There is a dubbed audio track in each language.

Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery—there are dozens of pictures, including stills from the movie and unexplained shots of cast and crew during shooting. I thought it rather humorous that the first photo that comes up when you select this extra is the booby shot. Pretty much validated for me the worth of this movie.

Filmographies—just a bunch of lists of everything each actor has been in.

Trailers—five film trailers, one of which was the trailer for Dark Forces.

Final Thoughts:
Dark Forces is a "horror" movie that is actually a sci-fi fantasy based on the tale of Rasputin, all played out in a very Omen way with a Rocky Horror fashion sense, and little sense anywhere else. Don't bother trying to get through this one.