Surreal lost gem, 'Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace,' resurrected by web

As the suspenseful synthesizers fade out, a heavyset, pasty man in a leather jacket and amber-tinted glasses looks directly into the camera and says, “Greetings traveler, I’m Garth Marenghi, horror writer. Most of you will probably know me already from my extensive canon of chillers, including 'Afterbirth,' in which a mutated placenta attacks Bristol.” With this opening line, '80s parody “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” (2004) starts right on the off-color fashion it maintains for the rest of the film: ridiculous dialogue delivered in a grave deadpan by characters that take themselves far too seriously.     

Starring its creators Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade (of IT Crowd fame) and originally produced for Britain’s Channel 4,“Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” is presented as a never-before-broadcasted '80s horror TV series that is being shown for the first time on British television, interwoven with interviews resembling those of DVD commentaries given by the series’ “original cast.” The show within a show, “Darkplace,” is then introduced to the viewer as the brainchild of “author, dreamweaver, visionary plus actor” Garth Marenghi, who also stars as Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D. -- a doctor who works in a hospital that contains a portal to hell. Paranormal hijinks based around the challenges of "[fighting] the forces of darkness and [dealing] with the burden of day-to-day admin" ensue.

Despite the seemingly elaborate premise, much of the humor in “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” is somewhat lowbrow and is derived mainly from satirizing low-budget television. From the obvious use of terrible scale models for establishing shots to truly heinous continuity errors (a character is alternately shown holding and not holding a gore-caked shovel over the course of a conversation), odes to shoddy production abound and are used to great comedic effect. Outright slapstick is also present; the ever-escalating series of weapons used to dispatch a possessed corpse, culminating in a flamethrower, is one particularly choice example. In spite of this emphasis on physical comedy, “Darkplace” is not without more sophisticated humour; there are many cerebral laughs to be found in the pretentious lines delivered by “the cast” during their “interviews.” The excellent line delivered by Richard Ayoade’s character, in which he declares that he was “cast” because Garth “didn’t want an act, he wanted the truth, so here is Dean Learner, playing Thornton Reed, not putting on an act, but putting on the truth” is one of many such gut-busting statements.

“Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” also benefits from an outstanding cast, all of whom are able to masterfully lampoon low-rent TV actors by giving performances that are in turn wooden and overwrought. Richard Ayoade’s acting is cringeworthy, and the machine-gun pace at which he delivers his lines is reminiscent of a shy middle-schooler desperately trying to say his piece so he can escape the stage at a school play. Ayoade’s hackneyed performance contrasts wonderfully with the booming theatricality of Matt Berry’s character, Todd Rivers. Berry brings a hilariously out-of-place Shakespearean quality to the scenes he graces. Across all characters, dialogue also expertly modulates between understated and over-the-top, such as when Garth nonchalantly inquires if a supporting character is “all right” immediately after the latter had exploded and coated a room with viscera.

Channel 4, the carrier of the series, appears to have made the show freely available on its website, but episodes wouldn’t load at the time of writing. The channel also seems to have taken a lax approach to enforcing its copyright, as the series has been uploaded to YouTube by various users. As a result, this aggressively underrated cult classic is now easily available to anyone with an internet connection. So “sit back, dim the lights or switch them off if you don’t have dimmers” -- preferably in the company of a few friends who can share in your bemusement -- and prepare to enjoy a series that, by its own admission, “points the way forward for humanity.”