Save your money for something good and enjoyable

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Nice colors and Owen Campbell is lovely, but it's clear that they got rid of whoever was smart enough to write the beginning of the movie, and the rest was written by a committee of hacks. You can just hear it: "we can't have a heretofore decent character turn into a psycho are start hacking people up halfway thru the picture!" "You wanna bet?" It really pisses you off - this is my time being so pissed I wrote a review. It feels like good people worked hard but the result is unwatchable.

Actually not a bad film. Seeing the poster, you can expect the kids films like 'ET', 'Stand By Me', 'Goonies', et cetera kind. But it was a different. More matured kind of narration. Then the characters are still teenagers and as usual their mischievous lands them a big trouble. So the four friends set to wander around, but soon when they met with an accident, they decide to resolve it in their way. But it begins to take a twist when one of them goes berserk. Once again, they have to come up with something to end it all for good. It becomes more intense and ends with a decent finale.The casting was so good. These boys were really great. The story does not look that fine, but the way it was made and performances puts it on the top. Looks like they are future big stars. It was from a cinematographer turned filmmaker. It's his first direction and a fine debut. I don't know the title meant exactly what the it had narrated, but convincing enough. So one of the decent thriller from the year, definitely worth a watch.7/10

I suppose when you title your film 'Super Dark Times' there is a bit of an onus on you to make the film reasonably dark. What starts out as quite a simple story turns into something quite major and compelling by the end. I'm definitely glad it did too because the original route the film seemed to be heading towards would not have been memorable or interesting really at all. The way they did it though made this turn out to be a very good little flick.I quite liked the chemistry between the characters. The romance angle between the characters of 'Zach' and 'Allison' was well written and the actors did a very good job of pulling it off. Amy Hargreaves' adition to the film was also a positive one. She plays a very similar character to her one in '13 Reasons Why' and she is perfectly suited to it. Finally Charlie Tahan mildly impressed me in his role. Not always an easy one to pull off but he did it well.'Super Dark Times' isn't a game-changer in any way, but it certainly achieves what it sets out to which is to tell a simple story based around some great characters and provide a wee twist of sorts near the end. It does what it sets out to well and that's all you can ask of any film.

In Super Dark Times (2017), a teen must come to grips with his increasingly psychotic friend in this harrowing and tense coming-of-age thriller. Written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, and directed by Kevin Phillips, this indie film's competency highlights why Hollywood is failing. Younger, more creative filmmakers are using technology and innovation to craft solid, beautifully-rendered films that put big-budget studios to shame.Director Kevin Phillips is mostly known for his short film cinematography, and he's spent the past twelve years honing his craft. Nearly every scene in this film is beautiful, but it's not another example of "style over substance." The movie is structurally sound, competently written, and the dialogue is believable. It reminds me of films from the '80s and early '90s, which tried to ground fantastic or extreme situations in reality.As Super Dark Times opens, a buck has accidentally crashed into a high school and severely injured itself. Two police officers clear the scene and put it down. This dramatic and brutal scene sets the tone for the rest of the film. Enter four acquaintances, childhood friends Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan), Daryl (Max Talisman), and an 8th-grader named Charlie (Sawyer Barth). Zach and Josh both have a crush on classmate Allison (Elizabeth Cappuccino), but she eventually chooses Zach.The kids discover a bag of marijuana and a samurai sword in Josh's brother's bedroom and take it to a park to mess around. Josh and Daryl get into an argument and Josh accidentally stabs him in the neck, killing him. The teens hide Daryl's body in the woods and try to forget about the crime, but Josh's increasingly erratic behavior stokes Zach's guilt and paranoia. The film's sickening climax is disturbing and difficult to watch, but the entire film has you on edge from start to finish.Super Dark Times is in many ways a typical coming-of-age film, but unlike Superbad (2007), which shares a deceptively similar name, it is far from the raunchy comedy we've come to expect. Like Stand by Me (1986), it subverts the genre and takes it to a much darker place.The movie was filmed in Kingston, New York along the Hudson River in autumn. The picturesque and quiet setting perfectly contrasts with the brutal violence. My favorite scenes, however, were very wide shots of the teens riding their bikes down a deserted street. The audio is crystal clear, but they seem swallowed up by the background. Their smallness re-emphasizes their age and place in the world.If I had one criticism, it would be that the female characters are underdeveloped and serve mostly as pretty window dressing to move the plot along. They have no agency or motives of their own. Prior to this film, Elizabeth Cappuccino had appeared in two TV shows and short films, including Jessica Jones. I would have liked to see her play a more challenging role.Super Dark Times stars several talented young actors. This is Max Talisman's first full-length film and he performs admirably as what would normally be the chubby comic relief. Charlie Tahan and Owen Campbell have much more experience under their belts, but all come across authentically.Super Dark Times is not a perfect movie, but it's not trying to be. Its simple authenticity comes across more like a documentary than a feature film, and its style takes you back to the early '90s without overtly playing on nostalgia. Besides Detroit, it was one of the few truly captivating films of 2017.