Think of a row of dominos as scenes in a film. The first domino strikes the one before it; the impact launches a second tile into a third, and so on. In the fall of a single domino you have dramas essence, in the striking of two you have conflict, and in the tiles arrangement the story.
Now a writer creates an environment which contains and frames his narrative. By committing to the framing device he can go literally anywhere and take his audience along: You can blow up the death star if you start with battling space ships roaring overhead. A mother can cross to the spirit realm 
and save her child if a ghostly hand first shot out of the television set. It’s gravity that links and makes the tumbling domino work. But when a film works dramatically it’s not due to anything as logical as gravity. (Giant man-eating bunnies? Living in John Malkovich’s head?) For a movie to succeed, first and foremost, requires individual scenes be connected and justified by the filmmakers fidelity to his framing device.
In other words: If little Joey is an orphan trying to escape Nazi Germany for forty minutes of the movie you can’t have him rescued by giant space worms awoken from hibernation by all the bombing. Any other merits Dark Reel has are moot because the writer\director broke one of the Golden Rules: Can’t have no boom in the 50th scene if the fuse ain’t lit in the 1st. Sorry, Josh.
Available for streaming On Demand
Director: Josh Eisenstadt
Starring: Edward Furlong, Lance Henriksen. Tony Todd
Rated: R
