In 1982, Steve Barkett created The Aftermath, a classic post-apocalyptic thriller. Nine years later, he wrote and directed Empire of the Dark (1991), an adventure fantasy full of sword-fighting, monsters, and gore. He never directed another movie, though he appeared in several films produced by Fred Olen Ray, who also produced Empire of the Dark. Fortunately, both of the films Mr. Barkett directed are classics.
Your universe's critics are wrong again. For example, reviewer paulmichaelgray writes, "Like they have said. This film is terrible." Reviewer godinamachine writes that "its [sic] got the campy acting, wierd music and stylized feel of older film in general." And reviewer abduktionsphanomen writes, "its [sic again] production values are completely lacking."
Read on for the truth about Steve Barkett's Empire of the Dark (1991)...
The film begins in a cavern at night as a group of robed cultists begins to perform a ceremony to free something called Malius from its unspecified prison. A young woman dressed in a red negligee is stabbed and the lead cultist, Master Arkham, holds up the bloody knife as a horned monster stirs in what appears to be a volcano.
Elsewhere, Officer Richard Flynn of the local police department speaks on the phone to Angela, who wants him to come to a warehouse as soon as possible. He does so, and he finds the place overrun by cloaked demons. After shooting a few of them, he finds that the back wall of the warehouse has been breached, leading into a massive cave system. He runs into the cave in search of Angela, finding her strapped to an altar, about to be sacrificed by more cultists. He is too late to save Angela, but he manages to defeat two cultists and rescue her baby. He runs back into the warehouse just as an explosion occurs and the breach into the cave is magically sealed.
Twenty years later, the middle-aged Officer Flynn is now wearing a mustache and living in an idyllic cabin in the woods, where he practices sword fighting and flirting with his attractive female instructor (“No reason to bar a little illicit sex between instructor and pupil,” Flynn says, though he lives with his girlfriend Stacey). He is now a bounty hunter in the wonderfully named town of Lava Springs. When Terry, Angela’s child who is now 20 years old, arrives in town, he attempts to contact Flynn, but Flynn ignores him.
Also, the town is dealing with a serial killer dubbed the demon slasher.
Flynn’s action-packed life extends to his visits to the supermarket, where he has a shootout with an armed thief who takes a little girl hostage. In the end, the villain is shot, the girl is saved, and Flynn meets up with Detective Green and Terry, though Flynn still wants nothing to do with Angela’s child.
Meanwhile, Flynn’s reporter girlfriend Stacey interviews Zupan, a psychic who knows who the demon slasher is. (Zupan is played by George Romero regular Joe Pilato). “Ten girls have died. Ten more will die before the next full moon.” He explains that twenty years ago, twenty girls were sacrificed by the same group of people, including his daughter (who is not Angela). Before Stacey can question the plausibility of a cult repeatedly murdering twenty girls in a short amount of time, he tells her, “They are here, Miss Brent. In the boundaries of Lava Springs.”
At night, Flynn has a dream that Angela is still alive, but she is menaced by the volcanic demon. When he wakes up, he arranges to see Terry and Detective Green at the local Catholic church.
In a suspenseful sequence, we watch a young couple making out in a car. (Clearly, they must have a good reason to be out in the woods at night despite the murders of ten girls in town in the recent past.) The girl hears a noise. “What was that?” she asks.
Her boyfriend quips suggestively, “Just my shorts expanding.”
But the trouble is not in his pants, as we see the horned monster towering over their car.
The monster kills the boy and chases the girl through the forest.
The next day, Stacey interviews Madame Oleska. “What can you tell me about the Dark of the Moon ceremony?”
“It is performed all over the world by various unrelated Satanic groups. The group Mr. Zupan is following are called the Perennials. It is a terribly sadistic and savage religion, almost as old as man itself.” She explains that the cultists are immortal, but can be killed by steel that is blessed.
Meanwhile, Flynn has another action-packed errand to run, as he is assaulted by robed cultists when he tries to help a woman with her broken-down car. Fortunately for Flynn, the cultists are armed with swords and he still uses his service revolver, so he is able to shoot them, until he runs out of ammunition. Then he steals one of their swords and, using his training, defeats most of the rest of them. (This sequence includes a lot of impressive stonework, as cultists fall from bridges and cliffs.) In the end, Flynn jumps into a river to escape the remaining cultists.
Flynn, after changing clothes, meets the church with Terry and Detective Green. They explain that the cultists Flynn killed twenty years ago are still alive and haven’t aged. Flynn is understandably skeptical, and he storms out of the church, refusing to help Terry. Later, however, Green visits Flynn at his cabin and they have a heart-to-heart in front of a blazing campfire, Flynn’s hand resting on Green’s thigh. Flynn agrees that something supernatural is going on, and that the cultists have returned. He thinks there is more to it, as well. “Four years ago, out of nowhere, I decide to take up fencing. And then, later, broadswords. And then today, about a dozen guys attack me with broadswords. And I survived because I know how to use one. Now, doesn’t that strike you as kind of an odd coincidence?”
“Odd? Hell, yes.”
“It’s no coincidence. Something big’s about to happen. Something…something evil. Something that centers around that kid, and the night Angela died.”
As if to confirm Flynn’s suspicions, the film cuts to the lava-filled cave, where the cultists are performing yet another ceremony. Their leader, Brian Devree, says, “Great sentinel of the darkness, send me your soldiers!” This is followed by various shots of cloaked demons and the big horned monster growling.
Meanwhile, Flynn visits the church again, where he is informed by Sister Mary that Terry’s father was not a cultist — it was Flynn himself! (This is perhaps not a heart-stopping surprise to the audience, as Terry looks almost exactly like Flynn, down to his mustache, and Terry is played by the son of Steve Barkett, who plays Flynn.)
Flynn and Detective Green visit Madame Oleska, who affirms that Angela is not dead, but she is in suspended animation in a dream chamber. “It is near. Very nearby,” she tells them. She also says, “Once the twentieth girl dies, it is only a matter of 24 hours before the sacrifice of Angela and Terry.”
Later that night, horrifyingly, Stacey arrives at Madame Olseka’s house, but finds that she has been decapitated, as her head falls off in silhouette!
There follows a montage in which Flynn and Terry practice sword fighting, well aware that the only weapon capable of killing the cultists is blessed steel. They have their swords’ blades blessed by Sister Mary at the church, so they are finally ready to defeat the evil cultists.
In another horrific action sequence made all the more surreal by the fact that it cuts between day and night despite being set at Flynn’s cabin, a female demon attempts to seduce Terry while cloaked demons converge on the cabin at night. Flynn disguises himself in a hooded sweatshirt, then kills several with a broadsword in daylight as broad as the broadsword.
Terry manages to kill the demon with Green’s help. She explodes in a burst of sexy electric lightning.
Unfortunately, however, the cultists abduct Terry, so Flynn and Green can only rush to the nearest cave entrance and hope it leads to the cultists’ magic underground lair. Green stays on the surface, rigging explosives to destroy the cave entrance once Flynn returns with Terry and Angela. (Curiously, Flynn does not take one of the blessed swords, but fortunately one is lying in the cavern.)
In the final act, Flynn invades the cavern system, killing cloaked demons as he goes, sometimes with a tommy-gun and sometimes with a broadsword. After a great deal of thrilling swashbuckler action, he nearly reaches the altar where Terry and Angela are about to be sacrificed.
Terry wakes up when he feels a pain in his shoulder where his father was struck during all the action. Fighting together, they reach the altar, where Flynn romantically revives the sleeping Angela with a kiss. Terry escapes with Angela while Flynn confronts Brian Devree with a broadsword. Unfortunately for Flynn, it is the wrong broadsword—not one of the blessed ones but a random sword taken from a cultist. However, Flynn has prepared for this eventuality, and he stabs the cult leader with a crucifix/dagger.
In the finale, the horned demon rises from a lava pit and attacks Flynn.
Flynn is saved when Zupan appears with a rifle. Zupan shoots the monster but he is torn in half for his trouble. Then Flynn leads the monster back through the caverns, where Green sets off the explosives just after Flynn gets clear.
Everyone lives happily ever after, especially Flynn, who is reunited with the love of his life Angela, who hasn’t aged a day in twenty years. A rainbow appears in the sky (though the skies have been completely clear), indicating that everyone’s troubles are over.
The End
Empire of the Dark is just as ambitious as The Aftermath, and just as successful. Like its predecessor, it is chock full of matte paintings, miniatures, stop-motion animation, monsters, and women in lingerie. It also includes father Steve Barkett acting with son Christopher Barkett, who was a young boy when The Aftermath was made and a young man when Empire of the Dark was made.
The old-fashioned feel and ambition of Empire of the Dark is infectious, and it is tragic that Steve Barkett only directed two films. Mr. Barkett passed away in 2023 at the age of 73. He was one of the last of the low-budget filmmakers who worked to make adventure movies the old-fashioned way, with techniques that have stood the test of over a century of cinema. Although most cinemagoers have probably never heard of Steve Barkett, his name should be honored along with those of more famous filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg who brought the pleasures of fantastic cinema to their audiences. Mr. Barkett will be sorely missed.