THE DARK has a lot going for it . It's directed by John Fawcett the man who made cult werewolf movie GINGER SNAPS and stars Sean Bean . It also has an interesting premise of a couple who's young daughter has
drowned which while not original - Everyone remembers DON'T LOOK NOW - has a lot of potential . Unfortunately this is a film that proves unless you have a well structured and compelling screenplay then all the other aspects of movie making are redundant
The problem with THE DARK is the longer it continues the more confused everything becomes . According to the trivia section this is the first film in history to involve the concept of " Annwyn " an underworld from Welsh mythology . I'd certainly never heard of this legend and I doubt if many people watching the film had done so either . Worse still it becomes obvious that most people who made the film don't know either . To hide this fact Fawcett starts throwing every cliché he can think of to disguise this fact and the audience have to endure startling sound effects/ noises , dark interiors of houses , apparitions and < insert our own cliché here > , so much so that you'll be at a loss what's going on long before the end credits
There is another major flaw and that is the " monsters " in the movie are sheep ! No I'm not making this up , I'm being deadly serious . Some films have aliens as villains , or spiders , or rats or any other skin crawling creatures you can think of while THE DARK has fluffy , four legged mammals famous for chewing grass and running away when anyone goes near them as objects of terror . It might seem amusing to see people being trampled by sheep but everything about the movie is constructed , framed and written in overly dead pan dramatics that it's impossible to raise a smile at this ridiculous plot turn
To be fair THE DARK is a fairly good film on a technical level . Both the cinematography and editing are impressive as is the sound mix so I've awarded it 4/10 . The down side is that I'm probably giving it a higher mark than it deserves since the storyline incidents are incomprehensible and has been stated most of the audience will be totally confused as to what's going on . Let's hope this is the last film to revolve around Annwyn . To be blunt a film about Ann Robinson would be more interesting
drowned which while not original - Everyone remembers DON'T LOOK NOW - has a lot of potential . Unfortunately this is a film that proves unless you have a well structured and compelling screenplay then all the other aspects of movie making are redundant
The problem with THE DARK is the longer it continues the more confused everything becomes . According to the trivia section this is the first film in history to involve the concept of " Annwyn " an underworld from Welsh mythology . I'd certainly never heard of this legend and I doubt if many people watching the film had done so either . Worse still it becomes obvious that most people who made the film don't know either . To hide this fact Fawcett starts throwing every cliché he can think of to disguise this fact and the audience have to endure startling sound effects/ noises , dark interiors of houses , apparitions and < insert our own cliché here > , so much so that you'll be at a loss what's going on long before the end credits
There is another major flaw and that is the " monsters " in the movie are sheep ! No I'm not making this up , I'm being deadly serious . Some films have aliens as villains , or spiders , or rats or any other skin crawling creatures you can think of while THE DARK has fluffy , four legged mammals famous for chewing grass and running away when anyone goes near them as objects of terror . It might seem amusing to see people being trampled by sheep but everything about the movie is constructed , framed and written in overly dead pan dramatics that it's impossible to raise a smile at this ridiculous plot turn
To be fair THE DARK is a fairly good film on a technical level . Both the cinematography and editing are impressive as is the sound mix so I've awarded it 4/10 . The down side is that I'm probably giving it a higher mark than it deserves since the storyline incidents are incomprehensible and has been stated most of the audience will be totally confused as to what's going on . Let's hope this is the last film to revolve around Annwyn . To be blunt a film about Ann Robinson would be more interesting