DARKNET: Canada's New Horror Anthology Series Is Worth A Look

 ~by Marie Robinson

You find the most grisly things on the internet. You read about serial killers and stalkers, or your morbid curiosity leads you to pages of pure shock value. But seeing grotesque images or reading sinister stories from your computer screen makes them a little less real, right? You don’t dare to think about who is logging from the other side…

From a team of horror writers and directors comes an interesting new television series of urban horror called Darknet. Among the directors are Vincenzo Natali (Haunter, Splice) and Rodrigo Gudino (The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh) as well as a fresh crop of first-time filmmakers (Steve Hoban, Anthony Scott Burns, Jeremy Ball). Each director will be taking on their own episode.

The first episode, directed by Natali, features several interwoven stories of debauchery and bloodshed all leading back to a seedy open forum website called Darknet, where criminals post proof of their crimes. In one particular plotline, a man catches sight of a comment left by a self-proclaimed murder that reads, “I just killed someone. How do I dispose of the body?” When he offers up a sarcastic slice of advice, the killer seems to take it, and the online interaction takes a dire turn. When other users condemn the so-called killer with their disbelief, the murderer takes it one step further, offering public proof of their depravity for anyone curious enough to go and check it out.

The first episode was full of original ideas, and I would really like to see more of Darknet. Unfortunately, that is not an option.

The first season, which consists of six episodes premiered on Super Channel on February 21st and is at the time only available to Canadian viewers. Efforts are being made to bring Darknet to the States, but for now, the first episode is streaming internationally on their website, here (http://darknetfiles.com/about/).