Dark Touch

The "summary", refers to the film's weirdest line, at the climax of the film.

It goes something like this, " Education used to be easy, but these days everyone has an opinion." ???? Was that supposed to be a joke? The film- makers seemed to concentrate on the looks of the film and the actors, more than the story. All the actors were "pretty", as was the scenery. I liked listening to the rich Irish accents. Unfortunately, the story seemed quite amateurish, as it contained bits and pieces from other movies, stuck together haphazardly. It jumbled "Carrie", "Who can Kill a Child", "Village of the Damned" and another recent Irish horror story,"The Daisy Chain", in which a little girl/elf burns her parents to death. The imagery was well done, but the plot was basically incoherent, with very little real story.

In a remote Irish community, eleven-year-old Niamh is haunted by invisible forces. She and her family are attacked during the night and she's the sole survivor of the ensuing fire. She is taken in by her neighbors. Nobody believes her about the mysterious powers of the house. She finds strange occurrences continue to follow her and thinks that they are the results of her own tears.

It's a reasonable indie horror. There is only one truly compelling scene with the group of girls and the dolls. The movie basically follows Niamh but it doesn't make it particularly scary. It starts with the original family dealing with a haunted house and ultimately dying in a violent night. That's not that scary either. The last act devolves into messy story telling. Missy Keating does a good job in the lead. This indie horror is trying something interest but it doesn't all work and it's not that scary.

Yet another supernatural kid horror that has an eye for atmosphere but the script is just nothing special.

Our main girl Niamh is a very sympathetic and adorable protagonist but we have just been here before and you need some kind of twist to make it interesting especially since this movie kind of blows its load very quickly, revealing the things we really should have just been guessing.

It's a vivid portrayal of the domination of adults in a child's life, even the well intentioned ones.

But I can barely even remember how this ended which is a pity from an Irish set movie with French people behind it.

Dark Touch takes the audience into an uncomfortable place, one with psychologically disturbing ground. It dabbles in the matter of child abuse with stylish yet subtle approach, but the slow pacing and lack of resolve might deter some viewers. The film isn't a harrowing encounter, at least not in usual adrenaline rush inducing way of horror or mystery genre, it's more of a thoughtful process to instill doubt and sympathy. However, this endeavor is probably not one audience would like to take part of.

Neve (Missy Keating) is a little girl who may or may not be abused. There's a stifling air about her, but her fragile self also instinctively draws sympathy. After a while there's a series of incident around her, which may harm her parents and anyone who tries to help her. What great about this premise is the acting of the lead child actor, Missy Keating. Not many young actors could perform as well as she does.

She embodies an interestingly frail persona, but it's still unclear whether she's the origin of misfortune or the victim, or even disturbed in an entirely supernatural way. Keating looks like a genuine troubled child, yet occasionally possessing daunting confidence. With her convincing performance, the movie at least accomplishes half of its goal.

The child abuse aspect needs to be addressed delicately, and the movie has done so with a good restraint. Unfortunately, the pacing is troublesome. There's really little suspense at the buildup, furthermore it only gets momentum after about halfway. At this point there are some random events that haven't been cleared, and ironically despite its more engaging approach the film sometimes resorts into cliché tactics.

Dark Touch is a display to bring emotions, parts of it are open to interpretation, although this might not deliver as strong message as it would like. It still has an unsettling aura with a good lead performance and relatable theme, even though the foray there is exhausting.

I am going to begin by stating that, while I am not an expert on film making, I think this is a very well directed and edited movie. The pacing was spot on. I was entertained from start to finish. Morally righteous audiences should be pleased by the lack of naked female breasts and naughty language. The story does deal with a very serious and disturbing subject however, so this movie may not be appropriate for everyone.

The main problem that I think some people will find with this movie is that the thing, or device, that drives almost all of the action sequences has already been dealt with in what is considered by many to be a classic horror film.