Shocking Dark

Shocking Dark is set in a Venice that pollution has turned into a dead city, its canals and buildings abandoned and a toxic cloud hanging over the lagoon. When contact is lost with an underground research facility studying new forms of life, a military rescue unit is sent into the tunnels and corridors beneath the city. The team discovers that whatever attacked the researchers is still down there, and that mutated creatures are not the only danger waiting in the dark.

The film was directed by Bruno Mattei, working from a screenplay by Rossella Drudi and Claudio Fragasso, with Franco Gaudenzi producing for Flora Film. It was released in March 1989 and runs ninety minutes. It followed several earlier Mattei features, among them Night of the Zombies, Rats: Night of Terror and Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, and came before later titles such as Cruel Jaws and The Jail: The Women's Hell. Christopher Ahrens, Haven Tyler, Mark Steinborn, Fausto Lombardi, Geretta Geretta and Clive Riche appear in the main roles, with twenty-one credited cast members in all. The film received a rating of 4.3 out of 10 on IMDb from around 2,200 votes, and a rating of 4.5 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes.