Ray Of Darkness is a movie produced by Realms Entertainment and directed by JK Realms. What initially got me interested in the project is local actor Magic J. Ellingson who plays the part of Sharky in the movie. I traveled from Portland for the cast and crew release party at the Jewelbox Theater in Seattle. Inside the theater, the stage is set with lights and props, and a special painting done by artist Kalani depicting the Vortex within the “Eye” logo that represents the film. They handed you lollipops as you walked through the door to be eaten at a particular point in the movie.
The director, JK , was introduced and addressed us all with the words “Welcome to my nightmare”. He talked a little about making the film before introducing the cast and crew that worked on Ray of Darkness to much applause. Ray of Darkness took five years from onset to final production and over 4000 hours of editing time. They worked on set with no money, no food, no production just a lot of volunteers that believed in the project.
The movie begins simply with the words
“Life’s sweetest joy is but a disguised pain”….Buddha
It is a twisted story of a crew of people sent in to investigate a missing girl. They encounter a strange cult, and enter into the Inland Empire despite their warnings of destruction that might befall them. After finding the missing girls car and entering into the cabin where it was apparent she last was, one of the team who is actually a close friend of the missing girl, begins having dark clairvoyant visions of the past and the tragedy that befell her friend. The movie manages to stay in the present while also telling the story of the past at the same time.
The plot itself has several twists and turns that keep the suspense high and you actually find yourself on the edge of your seat. A good movie is often judged by the reaction of its watchers, and observing the other members in the theater with me they were all fully engrossed in the film and could be seen jumping and flinching at appropriate terror filled parts.
The production is surprisingly good and the direction is promising. You would never know watching this that it is an indie, low budget film. The stories are told in a way that make them easily engrossing and the actors are well cast. The character Sparky shines, played by Magic Ellingson who is charismatic and cocky, taking charge of the entourage. He plays the part well as does his cast mates Paige Green and Carmela Ramaglia. I also really enjoyed the part of their “fearless leader” played by Forest Fousel
Overall the movie was scary, well told, well directed, and I cant wait to get it on DVD, sit down in my dark living room with a bowl of popcorn and a blanket to hide my eyes during the scary parts.
Interview with JK Realms, Director @ the Rendezvous in Seattle Ray of Darkness Movie Premiere By Robin Steeley
Crave: Tell me a little about the Inland Empire JK: There's an insane amount of lore behind this movie. People don't know what's really out there, in the other realms amongst us. But there are lots of people that go out and check into places like this; there are people that live for the paranormal. The places that I mentioned in the movie, they are real places, here in Washington. There's this one place, Maltby Cemetery, the city actually put up a regular street sign that says “Survivors will be prosecuted” because so many people go there to try and have an experience. Of course, the most interesting word here is “Survivors”, not “prosecuted”. They don't want the public to know or investigate these things, but with the internet, it's wide open. But it can be a dangerous thing.
Crave: Where did you come up with the plot? Is any of it based on fact? JK: It's definitely partially based on fact. The story is actually two stories. One takes place in the past, and one takes place in the present and that's the party that goes in to investigate, and through Drew's clairvoyant flashbacks, that's how we find out about what happened in the past, so its really like two stories being told simultaneously.
Crave: So you spent five years in production, and four thousand hours of editing work? JK: Four thousand hours. That's all postproduction, done by me. I mean, once you shoot a movie, you haven't made it yet. It's like making an outline for a book, you write the outline and then you gotta write the book. So it was really created in postproduction and when you break it down it actually comes out to 40 hours per minute of finished film.
Crave: Do you feel like its worth it though? JK: Tonight I do! I couldn't tell you last night, I still had no idea of what anyone was going to think of this film. I have been operating on like three hours sleep and it just got on DVD this morning. For three months straight the computer was just rendering, just to get something you can watch.I did all the special effects, there's over 700 and probably 30 you would notice if I mentioned them, most of the special effects are correctional, its hiding a person that wasn't supposed to be there, or making the scenery look better. People don't know, or don't appreciate what goes into it. I spent three days on three seconds of this movie. Just on effects like that shot where Drew walks under the gate, that gate is just barely over her head because she is so tall and I had to take the whole thing and reconstruct it and then bring it up a few feet, so that shot alone took three days to do.
Crave: It's that attention to detail that makes it so hard to believe you filmed this on such a low budget, with no major production behind it. JK: You think about it afterwards and you think man I spent five years of my life on this. This is a story I wrote when I was twenty five and I have changed a lot since then, and it's like finishing a painting you did when you were learning how to paint and every day you think it would be so much better if I just started from scratch. But you can't with a movie, once you have those actors in there, and once you have driven everyone around and overworked them, they aren't going to come back and help you start over. You have to finish a project to show your worthy of investment.
Crave: So what happens with the film after today? JK: Find a distributor and get it out on home video, which is what I always intended. What I always wanted was a Halloween DVD, something people can just have fun with. Of course, it's also a warning to anyone out there venturing to these kinds of places. Although this particular story is fiction, it's heavily based on real events.
Crave: What's behind the name “Ray of Darkness” How did you come up with that? JK: It's about Claire's dark visions. With her clairvoyant talent, she sees what happens in the past and she makes the decision in the end. It's all about the ending. She ends up sacrificing herself to save human kind. So that's where Ray Of Darkness comes in. It's not a pretty picture. I wish it was a feel good movie, but somebody's got to do those dark weird twisted films. The movie is also an experiment in “daylight horror”, breaking free from the cliché that horror only happens at night.
Crave: Where were most of the scenes shot? JK: All over Washington and parts of Idaho and even Montana.
Crave: Do you think its going to start a cult for the Hell's Cyberians? JK: It already has. I mean these people are already out there. A movie is really what people bring into it, it opens the door and then everyone else creates the movie in their own mind. Everybody in the theater has different interpretation for what's going on.
Crave: Do you think its going to have similar success to indie films such as Blair witch project? JK: As far as I know, Blair Witch had over a million sunk into it for advertising. That was a million dollar risk that Artisan took and I think that helped a lot. Hollywood tried to make a second one and it didn't work because they were making a Hollywood movie. The reason Blair Witch worked was because it was one of a kind. Hollywood doesn't like one of a kind because they either can't duplicate it or can't afford to risk trying. So, will we have that kind of success? I have no idea. Probably not, because it was made for viewing on DVD instead of in the theater. I think it will help more people go out and do independent films. I think a lot of it depends on the technology that's available and, even this year, a lot of what I have done in the movie would not have been possible before. So, people going out making independent films now have technology on their side.
Crave: Do you have a favorite scene from the film? JK: Yeah. It's the scene where Claire is up against the tree, witnessing Dawn chop apart a victim with an axe. And its very quiet, and it seemed really real, and it reminded me of the fears I had before I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I was so afraid of that movie before I even watched it, I think I was returning to that whole feeling, having to watch a butchery taking place in front of you. (Magic Ellingson) My favorite scene is the cult scene where Sharky and Drew run into the cult outside the gateway with the music and the psychedelic lollipop, that's probably one of my favorite parts. (JK) I think the reason that scene works is because it was one of the last scenes that I edited and I had so much practice by then. I mean really, the next project I pick up and work on is gonna be at that level for the whole movie.
Crave: What was it like filming on site? JK: It was supposed to be 100 degrees in the movie but it was actually freezing. We were somewhat weather dependent being in Washington and inevitably, whenever you need to shoot in sunlight its pouring rain. There are two shots in the movie where we are being pulled on the back of the car, and it's snowing while we're filming. The story was very dependent on the sun, another reason for the Ray of Darkness title, and the sun plays a significant role at different parts of the movie. Because the weather is so unpredictable here, in Washington, we decided to have the Inland Empire just make up its own weather patterns inside. We sort of had to because the weather was never going to be consistent so we thought okay fine, its part of the movie. The weather changes, shit happens.
Crave: What happens next for Realms Entertainment? JK: Psychonaut. The cult thing Magic was talking about, with all the drug influences. I'm going for a story that is kind of Natural Born Killers meets Altered States, meets The People vs. Larry Flint perhaps. I've been working on the script for a really long time. It has a lot of Oliver Stone influence. It's going to be very psychedelic. It's hopefully something people can sit back and chill too, listen to music and watch more than once. I'm excited about it. This is just the beginning.
Thanks Magic, and JK, for your time, don't forget to send me a copy of the movie!
