‘Carry the Darkness’ Brings Satanic Panic Horror to Digital and Blu-ray, Now Streaming on BloodStream

Douglas Forrester’s Carry the Darkness explores teenage isolation and supernatural terror against the Satanic Panic of 1993.

Douglas Forrester’s supernatural thriller Carry the Darkness is expanding its reach this week, with The Horror Collective releasing the film on digital platforms and Blu-ray beginning Sept. 8. The film is also streaming exclusively on BloodStream.

Set in 1993, Carry the Darkness follows Travis Baldwin, a teenage metalhead caught in the middle of the era’s Satanic Panic. When a mysterious entity begins terrorizing his small town, suspicion quickly turns toward Travis, forcing him to protect himself and his friends while the real threat remains hidden.

The film blends supernatural horror with coming-of-age drama and small-town mystery, using the paranoia surrounding heavy metal and youth culture in the early 1990s as the backdrop for a story about alienation, fear and moral panic.

Rather than building the film entirely around the spectacle of the era, Forrester uses the period setting to examine how quickly a community can turn against an outsider when fear begins to outweigh evidence. That approach was one of the elements that stood out when Horror Movies Uncut first encountered the film during its festival run at Hysteria Fest two years ago.

At the time, HMU praised Carry the Darkness for “its refusal to sensationalize,” noting that the film was “more interested in what’s beneath the panic than in the theatrics of the panic itself.”

That restraint remains central to what separates the film from a more conventional Satanic Panic throwback. While its 1990s setting incorporates heavy metal, supernatural conspiracy and cultural touchstones associated with the period, the story remains centered on the consequences of suspicion and the experience of a teenager who already feels isolated before his community begins looking for someone to blame.

Joel Meyers leads the cast as Travis, alongside Jaden Gant, Helen Laser, Hollis Fox, Autumn Breaud and David Boldt. Travis Bacon composed the film’s score.

Forrester has described the project as drawing inspiration from both fictional and real-world influences from the early 1990s.

“The film draws as much from the defining film and television of the early 1990s as it does from the era’s unsettling non-fiction,” Forrester said in a statement. “At its core, Carry the Darkness explores the terrifying yet familiar collision of teenage isolation and societal panic. My goal was to create an ominous thriller with a big beating heart at its core.”

Shaked Berenson of The Horror Collective similarly pointed toward the movie’s balance between genre elements and its focus on outsiders.

“Through its haunting visuals and acid-tongued nostalgia, Carry the Darkness reinvents the small-town horror genre, giving voice to the alienated while delivering pulse-pounding dread,” Berenson said.

The film’s wider release is especially welcome for HMU after seeing it on the festival circuit, and its arrival on BloodStream makes it another notable addition to the growing horror catalog of our streaming partner.

Carry the Darkness is available now to rent or purchase digitally through Amazon, Apple TV, DirecTV, Google Play, Hoopla and Vimeo. The Blu-ray edition is also available beginning Sept. 8 and includes audio commentary and deleted scenes.

The film remains available exclusively for streaming on BloodStream ahead of its arrival on additional streaming platforms Dec. 1.

Horror Movies Uncut readers interested in checking out Carry the Darkness and the rest of BloodStream’s horror catalog can ⁠join BloodStream through HMU’s affiliate link.

HMU may earn a commission from qualifying BloodStream subscriptions at no additional cost to the subscriber.