Surely, “Agency of Vengeance” is a silly movie, but one that’s often really indecisive about itself. Sometimes it aims for a straight forward horror actioner, and then other times it seems to mock its own premise, with goofy meta-storytelling. When a character is confronted with an evil minion asking “Why are you doing this?” he responds “Because. I’m the bad guy.” In either case, I wasn’t aware this is a sequel of a 2007 movie called “Dark Rising: Bring Your Battle Axe” which seemed more fantasy oriented. Thankfully you don’t have to track down that film, to see this one, as there are flashbacks and a lot of exposition to play catch up with.
Truth be told the fact this is a sequel didn’t hinder my enjoyment, and I didn’t notice that it was a follow up or continuation to another production altogether. The“Rising Dark Agency” is a covert program of the government that tracks supernatural phenomenon and have been tracking a sudden rise in supernatural activity. They’ve suspected a new Demon God has been gathering forces, and now they have to ask for help from super powered soldier and warrior Summer Vale. After a tragic end to her wedding via a giant sand worm, Summer picks herself up again to help find out what the new Demon God intends, and tries to prevent Armageddon, along with her army. “Agency of Vengeance” is a silly and campy action flick, but I was more than willing to forgive its faults, since it’s an apparent low budget production with no real aspirations to be taken as anything other a silly monster movie.
You have our heroine in lingerie brandishing a gigantic gun that looks like it came from the Rob Liefeld weapons catalogue, so you can’t really fault it for not being high art. One of the other reasons the film is so easy to sit through is mainly for Cory Lee. I don’t care how or why, but I hope she comes back for a sequel, if there ever is one. The woman is incredibly sexy and has only become more gorgeous since “Degrassi.” Brigitte Kingsley is also damn fine as heroine Summer Vale, and while she will never really win an Oscar, she makes up for it with quick comic timing, and convincing choreography. Director Andrew Cymek really knows how to grab for the exploitation tone well, flaunting the skin and cleavage of his female stars quite often.
This gives the movie the atmosphere of a Fred Olen Ray picture, but thankfully that’s not much of a caveat, especially since stars Lee and Brigitte Kingsley are beautiful. There’s a running gag where Summer can never really seem to keep any article of clothing on for long, which is fine since she only really seems comfortable in battle wearing a two piece. There’s also a fun walk on by Michael Ironside, and some entertaining pop culture references that would normally be annoying, but Cymek has enough restraint to make the nods clever. Director Andrew Cymek’s movie is a fine distraction that mixes horror, science fiction, HP Lovecraft themed fantasy, and high tech action for one big fun B movie stew.