Horror Movie Review: A Dark Foe (2020)

A Dark Foe is a horror-crime-thriller film directed by Maria Gabriela Cardenas and starring the director’s father Oscar Cardenas, releasing in 2020.

Tony Cruz is a tortured and guilt-ridden FBI agent suffering from an irrational fear of darkness. He relentlessly investigates a mysterious former prostitute in order to catch a vicious serial killer. The same killer that murdered his mother and kidnapped his sister when he was just a child. In recent years, the killer has become known for targeting prostitutes, removing their skin and killing them.

Never trust IMDB ratings ladies and gentleman. When I watched A Dark Foe it had a rating of 7.2/10, a very respectable score. Unfortunately, anyone that has seen this will know that we have all be duped. That’s right, this is a bad film. However, it manages to be entertainingly bad which is far more enjoyable. It takes you on a journey that left me disappointed due to it having some potential.

Firstly, the narrative on the whole isn’t bad. Done differently, it could be great. Unfortunately, due to lots of lacklustre acting and plenty of cheesy, unnatural dialogue, we get this instead. Additionally, the story plays out in extremely long-winded fashion. It constantly strays from what should be the primary focus to the point where it just bored me. It gets pretty weird in places but it’s that exact weirdness that makes the whole thing almost enjoyable.

Also, I’m sorry Oscar Cardenas but you’re quite possibly the biggest issue with this film. Tony Cruz is the main character and it’s pretty hard to take him seriously as some kind of badass, heartthrob action-hero. There are glimpses of decent acting but its below-par for the majority. The soap-opera like acting was so bad in the first 15 minutes that I almost couldn’t go on.

Secondly, the transitions between scenes feel choppy, abrupt and often left me feeling confused. For example, there’s a scene where Tony has just come face to face with the killer he’s been searching all his life for. Now, instead of focusing on going after him right away, he gets a lap dance from his girlfriend and has sex instead. It just made zero sense.

I’ll give the film credit for the gore because man, it’s pretty nasty and realistic looking. You don’t see that much but what you do see is very well done.

The ending for this film is dripping with cheese, dear god. Like I said, if you watch this film by looking at it as a “so bad it’s good” experience then there’s entertainment to be had. There’s something here, if you’re willing to dig deep enough. I can’t fault the effort but the execution leaves little to be desired. At the same time, if you told me that you shut it off after 10 minutes, I’d completely understand. To be fair, I’ll likely remember more about A Dark Foe than I do about considerably “better” films.