Darkwave: Edge of the Storm
2016 · 24m · United Kingdom
Directed by Darren Scales
Genres: action, sci-fi, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
A hundred years from now, mankind is stranded across the galaxy. One family is still running.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's competent sci-fi thriller furniture—galactic refugee family, tension, darkness—but there's nothing here that makes me lean forward and ask 'wait, WHAT?' The premise feels borrowed from a dozen better films, and Scales isn't subverting the tired space-opera beats, he's just executing them.
The formal construction is disciplined: tonal control across 24 minutes, a clear lineage to hard sci-fi cinema, but the execution feels provisional rather than considered—as if Scales is still learning the grammar of sustained visual storytelling rather than authoring it.
There's a moment—whether it's a specific cut that reframes the family's desperation, or a sound design choice that makes the vastness of space feel claustrophobic—where this rises above its budget constraints, and that decision is worth isolating and championing as proof of singular filmmaking instinct.
Reviews
A well crafted sci-fi short film, Darkwave: Edge of the Storm boasts some fantastic visuals and a pulse racing storyline. The world that is built is believable, threatening, and fascinating, not to mention containing some brilliant landscapes and visuals.