...a misfire of impressively epic proportions...

A modestly sketched episode of The Twilight Zone with its visual ambition peddle pushed all the way to the floor, the early woozy, pop-art hold of this brooding, passably eerie two-hander unravels considerably in its final half.

Thomas Jane punishes himself as both director and star, in this erotically charged, paranormal noir hallucinatory honeymoon horror Nevada desert road movie. Not to mention that what happens in Vegas in no way stays in Vegas for its unfortunate characters.

***Hitchcock-ian desert mystery that leaves you scratching your head*** After a shotgun wedding in Vegas, a couple (Thomas Jane & Lauren German) experiences a night of hellish mystery in the desert. Ron Perlman plays a cop and Chris Browning a curiously intrusive stranger. Jane directed the film based on a script by Tab Murphy. “Dark Country” (2009) is a modern Hitchcock-ian mystery/thriller similar in tone to, say, “Wind Chill” (2007) but with a different story and inverse setting (the nighttime desert rather than the nighttime snowy forest). The first half is slow-going with mundane dialogues and weird goings-on, but the story picks up in the second. Unfortunately, the last act is muddled and leaves you with many questions. But, if you reflect on it, the answers are there if you care enough to seek ’em out. Visually, this is a masterpiece of mood and haunting imagery. Have you ever stopped at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere late at night? How about hang out in the desert wilderness at night, whether in a vehicle or on foot? Either can be eerie and “Dark Country” captures this. Story-wise, however, it’s not as good as “Wind Chill”; the strange climax lacks the emotional whollop and is just too ambiguous IMHO. The movie runs 1 hour, 28 minutes and was shot in New Mexico. GRADE: B-