From the official site:
Straight Into Darkness will take you on a journey into a cold nightmare with two American soldiers (played by Scott MacDonald and Ryan Francis) that are on an emotional path of combat, destruction and realization. On the surface, it’s a character-led story that is set in the last winter of the Second World War, just after the Battle of the Bulge. On a deeper level, a whirlwind of feelings will overcome you while you witness the struggle of war and survival as it propels the psychological make-up of the soldiers’ characters and forces them on.

David Warner, Linda Thorson (The Avengers), James LeGros and Dan Roebuck are amongst the international cast, with Romanian actors playing several key roles.

The film was shot in and around Bucharest in Romania. Director Jeff Burr, intentionally let the locations help to shape some of the details of the story and the action. This blending of the story and the locations gives the film a haunting originality. In fact, some locations are actually more like a character in the film. Romanian Director of Photography, Viorel Sergovici’s cinematographic expertise and Jeff Burr’s vision meld together to create a film that truly conveys an actual feeling. When watching Straight Into Darkness you’ll feel as if you’re there right in the middle of a brutal Romanian winter. The film’s unique storytelling technique allows the audience to interpret and experience the story on many different levels and forces you to recognize the most horrid social issue of child soldiers, an issue that is still very prevalent in our world today.  (© 2003 Straight Into Darkness LLC.)


About the Production:
Straight Into Darkness is the tale of two American soldiers, Deming (Scott MacDonald) and Losey (Ryan Francis), struggling to survive in the harsh winter and emotionally debilitating destruction of the Second World War. Deming is a wild-eyed soldier on the edge and keeps Losey hostage at gunpoint as they desert their troop and attempt to escape the combat. Losey, a soldier with a good heart, is plagued with flashbacks interwoven with memories of his true love back home, horrible moments of combat and the one moment when he accidentally killed innocent women and children in a blaze of fire.
Deming and Losey have a combative relationship that is constantly tested along their journey. They reach an old, eerie, deserted flourmill and seek cover only to find out that they are not alone. Deming roughs up and takes hostage an old couple (David Warner and Linda Thorson) that show up at the mill, but quickly finds that his karma comes back to bite him.
The two American soldiers end up in a very unusual and haunting situation surrounded by child soldiers. It’s an experience like that of a most horrible nightmare. Germans soldiers show up and the gang of child soldiers, the old couple – the children’s’ teachers, Deming and Losey together all fight a most memorable war for their lives, performing brave heroics to protect themselves from the enemy.
Will Deming and Losey beat the Germans along with the almost ghost-like child warriors and their dedicated teachers? Who will sacrifice everything for the safety of the others? Will the psychological drama in Losey’s mind carry him to safety? Their struggle for life will lead straight into darkness as their fate unravels in the twisted, haunting story.   
       
“ Usually you’d expect to write a script, then go out and find a suitable location or make a decision to build a set, but before Jeff finished writing the script, we went over and did a scout in Romania,” recalls Producer, Mark Hannah. “The Romanian Director of Photography, Viorel Sergovici, used lots of cool camera movements with extreme and unusual angles and handheld camera-work to bring the viewer into the action,” says Hannah, who admits he’s incredibly impressed by the DP’s skills. “Viorel is young, yet he has so many films under his belt. He’s shot one film right after the other for the last twelve or so years and has learnt an enormous variety of filming techniques. He’s world class.”
Sergovici, a partner in Bucharest based Silver Bullet Productions, had preciously worked with Burr on several feature films in Romania. “Shooting with my good friend Jeff has been a real challenge and we had the most wonderful Romanian and American crew,” says Sergovici. “Jeff wanted to use every available moment of time so I had to fight the light, especially when we went into the magic hour, which was quite often. Ultimately, the bottom line was to achieve the period look of the Second World War – a cold, desaturated, but sharp feeling of conflict.”
Fight, stunt and battle scenes required three or, on occasion, four cameras. While the war sequences and flashbacks immediately prior to the war were shot on 35mm, Sergovici used 16mm and Super 8mm for earlier flashbacks filmed in Tennessee and Georgia.

Filming Straight Into Darkness was akin to conducting a military campaign, reflects Hannah. The crew worked literally hand in hand with the Romanian Army, with some soldiers doubling as Germans on the film, while others set up camp on set and guarded gear; the Army also hired out items of military equipment for the film, including generators and a tank. “Working with the Romanian Army was altogether a terrific experience,” says Hannah. “We used the last tank that still has metal treads and it made a great classic clinking clanking sound. On the first day as we were getting ready to roll, we heard it coming before we could actually see it: there was no mistaking the noise. It was actually a Russian tank, but our great art department guy built a shield to go over it so it looks identical to a German tank. We used a giant 12kW HMI on top of a hill to give some battle scenes an eerie side or back light; there’s a night shot where the tank is backlit in fog and it really looks scary!”

Kodak Cinelabs in Bucharest worked day and night to process almost 70,000 metres (over 200,000ft) of negative using bleach by-pass and then transferred the negative onto video via telecine.    (©2003 Straight Into Darkness LLC.)



Reviewer Quotes:

“Strikingly original and eerily compelling . . . the exhilaration of classic tragedy.” — Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times	“The feel of Edgar Allan Poe having shanghaied Bill Mauldin’s Willie and Joe and marched them through his fevered imagination . . . such atmosphere and tension that we can’t run from it.” — Robert Faires, The Austin Chronicle	“In the stylistic tradition of Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line blended with the contemplative imagery of Robert Frost and the darker ponderings of Edgar Allan Poe . . . An artistry that distinguished Burr from other filmmakers.” — Stina Chyn, Film Threat
“A horrifying descent into violence and madness worthy of Goya . . . Unexpectedly moving, with terrific performances, hair- raising action scenes, and mood that just won’t quit.” — Robert Butler, Kansas City Star	“Inhabited by powerful actors, these characters are all so engaging that one cannot help but become involved in their story.” — Noah Passovoy, SXSW	“A damn solid war movie . . . an anti-violence parable . . . a memorably mesmerizing visual experience . . . sincere and heartfelt artistry.” — Scott Weinberg, E-FilmCritic.com
“A heady brew of redemptive themes by way of Joseph Conrad, with editing and camerawork from the playbooks of Orson Welles and Sam Peckinpah. — Robert Koehler, Weekly Varitey	“A sleeper hit . . . a gritty, hard-hitting war tale with disturbing supernatural overtones.” — John Stanley, San Francisco Chronicle	“Visually adventurous and almost experimental in spots, Burr’s film avoids all the conventions of war movie blandness. It’s an original and surprising take on the genre, one made with refreshing intelligence and artistry.” — Jonathon Doyle, FantAsia Film Festival Programmer