Te seguiré en la oscuridad

This was really A Tale of Two films. The first half was intriguing and engrossing. And I wanted to rated highly. I am a Mischa Barton fan. The second half of film just fell apart into total ridiculousness.

Mischa Barton plays a young woman whose parents both die. Aggrieved, she renounces God's existence and challenges him to prove there's something more to life than what we know and see. I guess he does. He seems to send legions of things that bump around her flat to haunt her. Then he gets these goolies to kidnap her new - unbelievable perfect - boyfriend. The moral: never mess with God.

So, poor newly-atheist Mischa must look for her stolen bloke in a haunted apartment block where she reckons he's been imprisoned. Now, most horror films like this are about ninety minutes. This one runs at nearly two hours. And here lies the first problem. Namely, that much of the film is either pretty establishing shots/montages, or Mischa walking slowly around one empty hallway or another - sometimes something jumps out at her, sometimes not.

This film is slow. And how you perceive it will depend on how much you like it. It's the very definition of a 'slow burner.' If you're desperate for something to happen, it may well drive you mad and you'll find that absolutely nothing happens for long periods of the film. However, if you like your horror slow, creepy and tension-building, then you'll probably enjoy this.

Just don't go expecting a roller-coaster of a ride style horror film. Unfortunately, although I like to think I can appreciate a slow-burner or two, I found there was nothing new enough here to warrant watching it again. It falls into that 'seen in all before' category.

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I can honestly say my expectations were set too high for this film. I was expecting a supernatural love story and instead I got a big mess of a film, with a plot so vague I hardly know what to make of it.

The film starts off promising with a present to past reflection leading up to the current events. No doubt this tactic was to keep the audiences' attention to the end of this film. I feel without it all interest would have been lost, because there is nothing within the first 20 minutes to indicate anything supernatural about this film otherwise. That said, there isn't too much of anything ghostly until the last 40 minutes or so of this film.

The love story isn't strong enough either to make an impact on the viewer. The love story never really develops and the main story focuses more on the main protagonist dealing with some eerie events which begin to plague this young woman following a eulogy challenging anything supernatural to prove to her there is something beyond death. These events are what lead her to find refuge and love with a man she basically just bumped in to.

Into the Dark has a few things going for it, a talented cast, and a successful atmospheric tone. The only weakness is the screenplay itself; it is much too ambiguous for my liking and there is never a clear explanation for anything. Excluding our lead, all of the other characters are underdeveloped and certain events occur to all of them that just leave you scratching your head asking "what was the point of that? ".

I recommend this film only to those who are willing to ignore a weak screenplay, and are looking for a mindless supernatural romance film. Into the Dark runs roughly 110 minutes, and does have a bit of everything, but the film just can't seem to keep it's focus on any one thing.

Into The Dark (2012) sees Sophia Monet (Mischa Barton) experience a range of inexplicable and increasingly disturbing occurrences, following the death of her father.

Originally titled I Will Follow You Into The Dark (named after a Death Cab For Cutie track), Into The Dark is a romance, come supernatural thriller, which contains some interesting ideas and a few key scares.

Sofia sits by the bedside of her dying father, the last of her surviving parents. He is conscious and articulate; vocalizing his difficulties in accepting the illness which is rapidly taking control of him. He urges her to find love, telling her that she will not be complete without it. More significantly, he shows doubts with regard to his religious faith, stating "This may be all we really have." This statement unnerves Sofia, who is taken aback at such a claim being made by a man with whom she has associated the church her entire life.

A staunch atheist, Sofia echoes her father's doubts at a eulogy for him, displaying no great love for religion, nor any respect for the crowd that have gathered to pay their respects. "There are no ghosts, or demons, or loved ones waiting for us on the other side." he assuredly states. For those of us familiar with haunting movies, we all know that taunting what may or may not lurk beyond our perception is never a wise move. Needless to say, it doesn't take long before those spirits come a knocking.

A photographer, and visual artist (an oddly common profession in these films), Sofia stays up working late on her intricate time capture pieces. She remains sullen and morose as a friend attempts to coax her out. Worrying about her own health, she visits her doctor and, on her way home, (literally) bumps into Adam Hunt (Ryan Eggold: 90210), who is on his way to a tour of a haunted asylum. She joins him and the two form a flirtatious relationship. Whilst their excursion to the asylum is uneventful, however, the same can't be said for Sofia's apartment, which begins to take on strange and new forms, culminating in Adam's disappearance.

Despite the presence of two leads who are more associated with sunny teen dramas than genre features, Barton and Eggold hold their own throughout. There are scenes which create an unsettling mystique, such as when Sofia is pinned down to her by an invisible force in the middle of the night. Writer / Director Mark Edwin Robinson shows great potential within the genre, and it would be interesting to see if he continues his foray into genre territory.6.5/10

A beautiful story that will touch every soul that sees it! Shot in a mixed genre of supernatural and romance (Ghosts meets Sixth Sense) the film dwells on the undeniable and universal theme of love where that starts and ends and the Afterlife. It's a brave film that takes big chances with enormous topics and it's meant to evoke a response and conversation-which it certainly did for me and my friend- we talked about the film for two hours afterward. It's a film you have to see more than once and highly recommend it to you.

Hollywood has narrowed it view of films to be within a politically, ideologically and New Age correctness and those films outside its parameters are ostracized. This film will touch you. Kudos!