The Dark (2005)

Spooky and atmospheric

It doesn't matter who did or did not direct or produce this film. The result is way out of the ordinary with an ending that blows you out of your socks. The characters are fully fleshed out with Maria Bello giving an outstanding performance as the mother you just love to hate: mean-spirited, selfish, you choose your own term.
The horrid little creature that is her daughter is as loathsome as the girl who returns is sympathetic, a victim of her father's insanity. Until the point comes when you realise that this is not quite the case...
The only downside of this beautifully crafted film is the ubiquitous Sean Bean who, like Michael Caine, never seems to turn down work. Even so, his is a solid performance. As unlikable as the characters are, do they really deserve their fate?
This is a gritty and thoroughly unnerving picture. The photography is exceptional, particularly in the "Anwyn" sequences - the real horror of which is entirely in the presentation. The score, by Edmund Butt (who also did the music for the BBC's "Sea of Souls") is anything but forgettable. You just don't know what's around the corner with this music.
I've had this sadly overlooked gem for years. I don't know how I came by it but it stands up, over and over again. I'm only sorry that I have waited three years to speak up for it. July 27, 2008

Don't Waste Your Time.....

A muddled, confusing and very disappointing horror film from the director of the excellent Ginger Snaps. Mario Bello stars as a grieving Mother who meets a young girl who startlingly resembles her late daughter, Sarah. Bello chews the scenery every moment she is on screen and Sean Bean - who plays her equally depressed husband - simply looks uncomfortable in a phoned-in performance at best. The film tries very hard to be intriguing and original, but ends up wrapped in its own tangled web. Do not waste your time on this, buy a good ghost story such as The Innocents, The Haunting or The Others. February 18, 2008

Amazing movie

It had all the markings of being as spooky as the silent hill movie should have been. The best thing about this movie is that it doesn't have catholic over tones, which seem to monopolize the horror world, nor is it a "hack and slash" film. Most of the horror is psychological, being a parent it made it even more spooky, since I can imagine how the mom felt. Over all really well acted, moody, and definitely worth seeing. Cinemaphotograhy is wonderful also. This movie was unfortunately, a sleeper, it should have gotten a much better audience. Any horror cult fans would love it. January 19, 2008

Yes, it IS dark...maybe a little too dark

Poor Sean Bean: a great actor, he has been cast as a worried father in two recent films -- 'The Dark' and 'Silent Hill' -- that don't give him much to do except try to deal with an obsessive mother and a tragic child. At least 'The Dark' has great scenery! The plot is pretty standard (and very much like the aforementioned 'Silent Hill'): an American mother brings her daughter to Wales to visit her father, an artist, who lives in suitably remote and rather creepy cottage. Maria Bello's Adele is not the most sympathetic mother; in flashbacks, she's not the best caretaker for her child, and we see that the Welsh trip is an attempt for a "second chance" with her daughter. Of course, in the dark upper story of the cottage, there's a secret, and, like many films of this kind ('The Ring' is another good example), the mother's devotion to saving her child takes her into what appears to be madness. At times, the film is literally so 'dark', it's hard to tell what's happening; I like creepy, but when you have to rewind a scene to try to see it clearly, that destroys the suspense. There is, of course, the requisite twist at the end (who's really alive, good, come back from the dead, etc), and at least Sean Bean has a little more to do here than in 'Silent Hill'! I also liked the killer sheep, which is something you just don't see in most horror films... January 2, 2008

The Dark

*The Dark* is an interesting movie. However, I found it, at times, to be a bit too slow for me.

Anyways, Adele and her daughter, Sarah, come to the Wales to visit Sarah's father. However, Sarah drowns in the ocean and her body cannot be found. In the midst of Adele's mourning, Ebrill appears, who has an uncanny resemblence to Sarah.

Ebrill explains that she, too, drowned at the ocean...60 year ago. The story around her drowning is both interesting and creepy. Believing that there's some connection between Ebrill and her daughter, Sarah, Adele goes off in an investigation with the hopes of rescuing her daughter. At the same time, people in town are mysteriously murdered. Just who is doing the killing?

However, the question is will Adele ever find her daughter? Or was this all in her mind in the midst of her grieving? I cannot tell you. You just have to watch it.

The storytelling is wonderful. I just wish it was faster. But the suspense...such a nice build-up. November 9, 2007

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