Darkside (Red Light District) Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  3/18/2006

The Little Details

Running Time: 163 min.

Production Date: 5 / 16 - 19 / 2005

Director: James Avalon and Vince Voyeur

Cast: Alicia Alighatti, Deja Daire, Dillan Lauren, Hillary Scott, Holly Wellin, Julia Bond, Kelly Wells, Missy Monroe, Penny Flame, Sunny Lane, Alex Rox, Billy Glyde, Ethan Cage, Herschel Savage, John Strong, John West, Marcus London, Randy Spears, Sean Michaels, and Tommy Gunn

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: I don’t think I’ve heard a single bad thing about this one. I’m definitely going into it with high expectations.

Initial Reaction: It’s very impressive, and deserves all the praise I’ve heard for it.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody wanting both a story and nasty sex

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting soft and cuddly porno

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very nice. It’s clear and well balanced, but there are a few parts that are a little soft and hard to hear. The video is also very nice. The movie is shot on Super 16mm film, which gives it a bit of grain as well as some depth. That said, it works here with the artistic feeling fitting the movie very well. The artistic feeling is also helped by the addition of a bit of black and white footage and some nicely artistic lighting. Unfortunately, there are a fair amount of soft focus blurs due to the depth, and I’d be lying if I said that they never interfered with the action for me.

Music: The music is very nicely done. It has a great style that changes throughout the movie, but is often a bit on the loud side during the non-sex portions.

Menus: The main menu is nicely done, and blends plenty of sex with some nice animation and a still. The chapter menu is very nicely done, and lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and the names of the girls in each scene.

The Feature

Penny isn’t sure what’s going on. She thought she was just getting a virtual sex experience where her lover’s killed by her husband, but when she comes out she finds herself in that world. Something’s definitely going on, but the answers just might be more confusing than the questions Penny has.

Scene 1 - Penny Flame and Herschel Savage

When smoking hot brunette Penny meets up with Herschel, she plans to dump him and quit cheating on her hubby rather than fucking him yet again. They kiss passionately, with Herschel toeing her pussy and sucking her tits and Penny giving him a little knob gobbling before he fucks her missionary style on the couch. Penny encourages him to talk dirty to her about what a whore she is, apologizes for thinking about leaving him, and begs to suck Herschel’s cock again for a while before he finally lets her. They move on with some doggie fucking after Penny works Herschel over orally, and Penny even gets up to ride him in both cowgirls. Finally, Penny gets down and takes a great facial to finish things up.

This is the first scene I’ve watched from James Avalon in a very long time, and if he’s going to put out this kind of sex scenes with RLD then I hope he stays there a very long time! This scene has it all. Style. Chemistry. Dirty talk. Beauty. Nastiness. The only thing that isn’t there is anal and a cream pie finish, but it’s so hot that I changing anything about it would seem wrong. This is easily one of the best sex scenes to come out of 2005.

Scene 2 - Alicia Alighatti, Hillary Scott, and Randy Spears

“College student interns” do a little “performance art” on Randy in the back of the limo as Penny watches. They quickly break out Randy’s cock with Hillary taking the lead working him over orally and Alicia quickly catching up. The girls work back and forth, and take Randy into their throat too before they strip off Alicia’s panties and let her impale her ass on Randy’s cock reverse cowgirl style. Hillary gets right in there so she can suck Alicia’s ass off his cock a few times before sliding her own ass over Randy’s cock cowgirl style. Alicia spanks her ass so it’s nice and red and sucks Hillary’s ass off Randy’s cock before sharing it with Hillary’s mouth. Alicia takes over and catches Randy’s load in her mouth to swap down to Hillary. Hillary swishes it around a bit before spitting it back, and give it back to Hillary who appears to swallow it down.

This is another great scene. The girls balance themselves very well between Randy, and both girls get into both the anal and the oral action very well. The cumswapping at the end is also great, and my only complaint is that you didn’t get to see Hillary swallow down the load. This is another very hot scene.

Scene 3 - Alicia Alighatti, Ashley Long, Dillan Lauren, Hillary Scott, Penny Flame, John West, and Randy Spears

Penny is given a little erotic shock therapy next. Eyepatch wearing fetish nurse Ashley ties Penny into a chair and lets black fetishwear sporting Dillan, who really reminded me of Nikita Denise here, go over to give Randy a show with her ass. As they watch, Hillary and Alicia also can’t resist getting it on and Ashley starts to work on Penny to warm her up for John’s cock. Penny quickly starts sucking him, and is released to work on him from her knees as Alicia and Hillary move over to help Dillan suck Randy’s cock. John rewards Penny for a job well done with a little pussy licking before fucking her missionary style, and gives her a little more as Hillary and Alicia take another reverse cowgirl ride on the Randy express. Hillary and Alicia come over to help Penny suck John’s cock, so Penny goes over to give Randy a little oral attention before John picks her up and takes her back to the couch for some doggie fucking. Dillan bends over for some doggie action from Randy, and has him cornhole her instead of fucking her pussy while Hillary and Alicia play with each other in the middle of the floor. Hillary breaks off so she can suck Dillan’s ass juices off Randy’s cock as she takes it all the way into her throat. Finally, Hillary lets Randy pop in her mouth. She swaps it to Dillan who gives it to Penny who gives it back to Hillary who gargles it before swallowing it down. Afterwards, Penny goes back to John and lets him pop in her mouth.

I couldn’t help but wonder if there were a few people who had the wrong head explode while watching this scene. Penny and Hillary do an amazing enough job by themselves, let alone putting them in the same scene and then adding girls like Alicia on top! The action is a little broken up here, but there’s enough heat all around that I couldn’t help but really get into this scene as well. The cumswapping here was even better in the last scene, and I love the bit of fetish in it. This is another great scene.

Scene 4 - Alicia Alighatti, Hillary Scott, Penny Flame, Marcus London, and Tommy Gunn

Penny interrupts Hillary’s game of playful pool with Alicia to tease her as well as Tommy and Marcus as they guard them. Tommy quickly steps in for Penny when she moves away as Marcus moves in on Alicia at the other end of the pool table. He sucks Hillary’s tits as Penny plays with her a bit down below, and then gets Hillary all to himself as Hillary moves over to help Marcus suck Alicia’s tits. Tommy goes right to fucking Hillary from behind as Marcus warms up Alicia’s ass with his tongue and fingers and then fucks her pussy from behind. Hillary sucks her pussy off Tommy’s cock before having him spear her shitpussy, with Alicia following soon after. Of course the girls take some nice ass to mouth before letting the guys go back to cornholing them, and Alicia finishes off both guys letting them cum in her ass so Hillary can lick and slurp it back out.

This is yet another great scene. I love the tease Penny starts it out with, and it works the scene into the overall movie very well. Hillary, as always, gets into the sex very well, and makes nastiness into a thing of beauty. I love that they work an anal cream pie into the scene, and Hillary’s cleanup skills are great as ever. This is another winner of a scene.

Scene 5 - Holly Wellin, Kelly Wells, Sunny Lane, Alex Rox, and Ethan Cage

As part of a science experiment, Holly, Kelly, and Sunny are given memories of a porn star with geeky Ethan watching. Things get a little out of control, as after the girls masturbate a little they feel the need to get it on with each other. Sunny reaches out to either side to play with Holly and Kelly, and they make sure to play with her as well. Kelly moves off to attack Ethan orally, with the other girls slowly coming over to help. Sunny breaks back off when Janitor Alex arrives leaving the blondes to see who can take more of Ethan’s cock in their throat. Holly takes the first ride on Ethan before moving over to suck Alex as Sunny rides Ethan and Kelly urges her on. Sunny makes Kelly beg for Ethan’s cock as Holly lets Alex take her from behind, and lets Kelly have it in each of her holes with him before Sunny moves over for Alex to fuck her missionary style with Holly riding her face. Holly moves back to Ethan to get her shitpussy buggered reverse cowgirl style as Alex pops in Sunny’s mouth. Sunny swaps it down to Kelly, who of course gives it to Holly as she continues to ride Ethan. She plays with the cum and gargles it before swallowing it down, and then joins the other girls as Ethan sprays his seed between their faces.

Not surprisingly, this is another darn hot group scene. I love how the girls move between the two guys as well as how they built up to the anal rather than just going to it right away. The cumswapping is also great here, and I love how Holly’s included while continuing to fuck Ethan. This is a very nicely done scene.

Scene 6 - Penny Flame and Billy Glyde; Deja Daire, Hillary Scott, Julia Bond, Missy Monroe, John Strong, and Sean Michaels

When she’s taken to a sex club, Penny gets it on with Billy on stage while John takes on Missy and Deja and Sean takes on Julia. Hillary comes over to watch John take care of the girls, and eagerly offers her oral skills as he fucks Missy’s ass and then Deja’s ass from behind. Missy also gets in some reverse cowgirl anal action before Hillary takes John over to fuck Julia from behind so Hillary can suck her pussy juices off his cock. They let Julia go back to working on Sean so Hillary can take John into her ass reverse cowgirl style before gargling and swallowing his load. Deja and moves over to help Julia work on Sean, and even offers up both her holes to him. Julia takes Sean’s spooge spray in her mouth to swap down to Deja to finish off Sean. Meanwhile, Penny bounces on Billy’s bone like it’s her only hope for survival. She moves off to let him fuck her from behind before lying back for him to eat her ass and fuck her missionary style. Finally, Penny takes a facial to finish things up.

This is a pretty hot final scene, but the weakest scene in the movie. As usual, Hillary and Penny are nothing short of amazing, and the two of them drive the scene very well. That said, this scene didn’t hold up quite as well for me as the others. I like how it’s broken down so that you actually get chemistry with each group rather than jumping between the three guys and killing whatever chemistry has a chance to develop between cuts. At the same time, I was disappointed because I was always wondering what was going on with the other groups. The camera stayed tight on the guy and girls for each segment, and you were never really given a shot of the entire stage once the action got started. This is a pretty hot scene, but the style just didn’t do it for me like in the other scenes.

Darkside is a very impressive movie. It has a plot that works well to set up the sex scenes as well as being interesting. It isn’t a unique and overly original story, but it is intelligent and far beyond the typical porno story where you’re in danger of hurting yourself if you think about it. The plot is helped out quite a bit by the style of the movie. It’s artistic, but it also makes some great use of shadows, light, and camera angles. The style never got completely out of control where it started to interfere with the sex for me, but it also didn’t feel quite like your typical camera work.

As for the sex, it was very well done and yet also came up a little short for me. There’s some nice chemistry and energy in the scenes, and I love that it got nasty with plenty of anal, cum swapping, and the anal cream pie. On the other hand, it was also way too heavy on the group sex for me. When Alicia and Hillary got it on with Randy in the third scene, even though there were plenty of others joining in and getting it on around them, I still had a bit of a flashback to the previous scene where they took him on in the limo. The sex also seemed a little too confined. Yes, I loved the anal and cumswapping, but having anal and cumswapping in five scenes in the row for a feature seemed like a little much. A girl - girl scene in the middle or another couple scene would have really added some sexual depth to the movie. Although the group scenes are all very well done, Penny and Herschel’s scene that started the movie off was still easily the best scene in the movie and left me wanting more like it.

Although there were a few changes I would have liked to have seen with the sex, I also can’t deny that it was done much better than the sex in a very strong majority of the features which have been coming out lately. There are position changes and a flow the sex as well as a feeling like the sex is proceeding naturally rather than to get three minutes of foreplay, two minutes of position A, three minutes of position B, and then two minutes of the guy stroking himself to a pop somewhere on the girl because the world might end if a sex scene in a feature goes over ten minutes. Darkside has a few minor faults, but is still a very hot and very impressive adult movie which I really enjoyed. With how well James Avalon and Vince Voyeur did here, I’m definitely going to be checking out more of Avalon’s features for Red Light District.

The Extra Stuff

The only extra on the first DVD is a trailer for Darkside. When one goes to the second DVD, trailers are included for Sex Pix and Bustful of Dollars. Several photo galleries are included, starting with a hardcore gallery lasting nearly four and a half minutes and a glamour gallery lasting just over four minutes. In both these cases, the camera pans around a photo. I absolutely hate this style of photo gallery and didn’t get ten seconds into either of them. Photo galleries are also included for each scene where you can actually see the photo, and last about three and a half minutes with about seven seconds per good looking photo. There’s also a behind the scenes featurette and a bonus scene.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts twenty seven minutes, and is presented in the full screen aspect ratio. Penny Flame starts things out introducing the movie with a few others trying to figure things out before James Avalon talks about what the movie’s really about. The camera moves around to capture the movie being shot while occasionally cutting back to interview some of the stars. Hillary talks about her love of anal and screwing up porn for her brother. There’s also a bit of Vince Voyeur helping people out with some of the sex scenes. This is a nicely done behind the scenes featurette. The only problem with it seemed to be the “AVN Reviewers Rock” message that popped up at the end. I mean, where’s the love for Adult DVD Talk????

Bonus Scene - Dillan Lauren, Marcus London, and Tommy Gunn

Dillan starts things out in a black bra and thong riding a lion sculpture. She runs her hands around a bit until Marcus and Tommy walk in dressed in full black suits and ties. They pick her off the lion and set her down on a white rug between the lions so she can suck and stroke them. Dillan doesn’t hesitate to take either of them into her throat, and doesn’t show any preference between them either. She takes the first facial from Marcus and then rubs her tits a bit. After an editing cut she moves over to take Tommy’s nutty goodness on her tits.

This is an okay scene. Dillan looks great and does a good job sucking cock, but I’m just not a big fan of oral scenes. I was also a little disappointed as it was handled like a behind the scenes scene with Dillan getting plenty of instruction from off camera. If this scene were presented like the movie I think it would have been much hotter. At least it was presented in the anamorphic widescreen format.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, group, anal, ass to mouth, spanking, cumswapping, swallowing, lesbian, rimming (male > female), cream pie (anal), and interracial

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Condom Usage: None

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many of Red Light District’s DVDs can be found online for between about $14 and $25, with several stores offering them in the $15 range. Even at the higher end I’d be tempted by this one. The sex is hot and the story is very well done. The technical aspects are nicely done, but there are a few of the film drawbacks which might interfere with some people. Finally, there’s some good effort put into the extras. This is a very nice release, and a must have for people who want to see some of the potential for a porn feature.

Note to Red Light District: I’ll readily admit to being one of the people who doubted you moving into features. Thank you for proving me wrong and please keep them coming!

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight