Dark Parasite, Slimy Green Parasites Infest Italy

From Italy, we have a good one.  I know...the geniuses who rate films on IMDB only gave this one a 2.3 out of 10 star rating...wusses! If Stanley Kubrick had made this one or if the cast represented marginalized communities to a greater degree, they would have given it a 8.8 out of 10 star rating. Still a film about alien parasites dwelling in an underground bunker under Italy is a subject that we have been waiting for in film. Today we look at 2023's "Dark Parasite," directed by Luca Boni and Marco Ristori.

Meteor showers rain over Italy. Just like in "Day of the Triffids," they leave some alien Hijinx. A slimy green parasite is now part of the Italian landscape, and it finds an underground home. Meanwhile, Abraham (Aaron Stielstra) is a thug masterminding a heist. Of what? That is a mystery. He recruits two unsure thugs to help him, the pretty Nikita (Desiree Giorgetti) and her BF Mark (Michael Segal). Neither of these cohorts is a killer, but Abraham is.  The heist goes down. No one was supposed to get shot. Abraham and even Nikita open fire and all the mobsters are mowed down.  Our trio gets away with a mysterious briefcase.  Part two of the plan, hole up in an abandoned house in the inner city and wait for the syndicate to show up to collect the briefcase and pay the trio.

Uh oh, the large house has a basement that connects to a mysterious underground bunker. In the bunker fungus like parasites have taken over.  They infest humans, make them their drones, and collect other humans. Eventually the humans blow up and spew green slime everywhere. Happens. Now our three thugs get lured into the place and what happens to them won't be pretty,  They'll meet Willie the Whack Job (William Gambini). Willie, a whino in life...and a mean monster filled with green slime in death.  Other parasites, in the form of giant slimy slugs also prowl around.  Yes, you guessed it, a queen parasite has a master plan for the thug trio.  Even worse is what the queen parasite has planned for Nikita.

Just what was in the briefcase that our trio may have risked everything to steal?  What are the parasites doing in the underground bunker below the streets of Italy?  Is this film a thinly veiled metaphor for what happens when European Union policies suppress any peace and diplomacy in favor of a failed Green agenda?  Perhaps this film is the ethos of today's Europe.  In any case, for a slimy parasite horror film, "Dark Parasite" is a pretty good take.