Dark Haul

I love when the SyFy channel's films go berserk and create a haywire of haphazard events. It occurs around the 30-minute mark of the new Blu-ray "Dark Haul" and a violent carnage involving a blown-up gas station sets off a chain of events that lasts through the film's remaining running time. None other than Scream Factory offers up this 2014 TV movie that takes itself a bit too serious; "Sharknado" this is not.

As shown in "Dark Haul's" opening sequence, it's 275 years ago and the 13th child born to a couple happens to be a winged demon, part of a prophecy called "The Jersey Devil." The beast somehow has a half-human sister (Evelena Marie) and both get locked away for centuries in order to alleviate a doomed apocalypse. Are you with me so far?

None of this plot device really matters because the point of "Dark Haul" is to unleash the demon in the woods on a dissimilar group of victims. For this to happen, beast and sister need to take a long trip via an 18-wheeler truck. When the action finally occurs in the film, it's a little too late; "Dark Haul" takes up way too much exposition time for things to get going. Wait for this one to get repeated on the SyFy channel instead of a Blu-ray purchase.

Only the trailer for "Dark Haul" gets included as the Blu-ray's bonus material, a shame considering how much fun it would be to watch Tom Sizemore explain his involvement with this shoddy film.

"Dark Haul"
Blu-ray
www.screamfactory.com