Dark Tourist

Grief tourism is an excursion to locations associated with tragedy. Travelers visit sites associated with death and murder. Dark Tourist, directed by Suri Krishnamma, exquisitely examines this fascination with pain in a manner that allows the audience to delve into the mind of a man who uses trauma to connect with others. This film encourages its audience to understand how feelings of loneliness and isolation devour victims who are unable to reach out to people around them.

Michael Cudlitz (Southland, Running Scared) plays Jim Tahna, a security guard whose eagerness for grief tourism goes beyond that of mere fascination with death and destruction. Jim takes a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana to visit sites associated with mass murderer, Carl Marznap, a quietly chilling Pruitt Taylor Vince (Wild at Heart, Constantine). In between locating the places where Carl grew up and slaughtered innocents, Jim meets Betsy, a heartbreakingly stoic Melanie Griffith (Lolita, Working Girl).

Cudlitz has a magnetism about him. He is able to maintain momentum between lucid expectation and crushing vulnerability with mere gestures, his limping step, and an emotive intelligence behind his eyes. Cudlitz plays Jim as a man of many layers whose desperate need to fill the unexplainable void within renders him incapable of sincerity. Jim knows exactly what to say to people and how to say it.

Krishnamma's use of sound allows his audience to make the connection between Jim's insatiable need to bond with others while simultaneously preserving his isolation. The lighting is at times beautiful and accentuates the grotesque themes of the film. Trauma, sexual desire, brutal deaths, and painful memories are highlighted under Krishnamma's artful direction.

The most intimate moments are surprisingly found during the Jim's voice overs, where we watch him go about his day. Paired with rhythmic, repetitive, and chaotic sounds, Jim is carried through the story methodically. This adds to the mounting tension that builds throughout the film as the reasons for Jim's fascination with pain are revealed.

In Dark Tourist, Krishnamma deals with the notion of an audience's fascination with death and sexuality as a form of entertainment. It is as if he is prodding the audience to look inward and discover their own reasons for feeling such satisfaction. The concept of one being a bottomless void, a face, a name, a victim, plays heavily in this orchestrated piece that no provides no simplistic answers to the logic behind a serial killer's motive. Nothing is black and white.

Dark Tourist is a film that calls to mind the thought of what it means to be a victim of a tragic event. It daringly and disturbingly draws the audience to the social dilemma victims of violent and sexual trauma face amongst peers, which is the fear of communication and the tendency to turn a blind eye. Cudlitz's portrayal of Jim during scenes where he is psychologically afflicted is masterful. In one scene Jim and Carl stand outside a prostitute's door. Jim is silent, still, almost trembling with the effort to hold himself against temptation. Here is the moment where change is imminent. Vince's quiet tones and Cudlitz's pregnant pause embodies the issue of trauma buried deeply into the psyche, and the struggle to keep the despair of its existence at bay.

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Disturbing, raven hued serial killer noir, 'Dark Tourist' has a cogent script, oodles of style, and an especially compelling performance by Michael Cudlitz as the introspective, taciturn, downward-spiralling nightwatchman who exchanges the solitary grind of his thankless job for a thrilling terror trip into the stark, sweltering Californian hinterlands, morbidly retracing infamous mass murderer Carl Marznap's (Pruitt Taylor Vince) historical killing spree! While well-paced, and razor-sharp in its execution, 'Dark Tourist' might not have enough wanton 'Slash N' Gash' to satisfy the more splatter-happy Grindhouse gorelings, but Krishnamma's angsty, flawlessly acted, sexually sordid thriller has a genuinely unsettling fatalistic tone that rigorously infuses the repressed, increasingly unstable psychopath's (Michael Cudlitz) grisly exodus with a palpably zesty threat of inexorable doom!

Going to dark places taking literally. Our main protagonist is not someone that will win a popularity contest. But that is not the kind of movie you should expect anyway. This is exactly what it says: Dark! And the main actor is great depicting the downfalls and the character trades in general.

Which also makes this is a very uneasy view. This won't go down easy with people who can't stomach a few events. You might see a few things coming, but there are still some surprises that are going even deeper into the tunnel. Very well shot this was a favorite at the Frightfest in London where it was playing. Not for everyone, but if you can dig it (you'll know a few minutes in), you'll have a hell of a ride

This review was written by Amanda Baverstock, a UK resident who saw the film in London during Fright Fest. A spot on review! With her permission, I am posting here.

"Dark Tourist is a dark slice of cinema. No doubt about it. It makes for truly uncomfortable watching but please, do not let that put you off because if it does then you will certainly be missing out on an emotionally cerebral and breathtaking performance from Michael Cudlitz. Here he portrays a man quietly being torn apart by deep-seated inner demons like no other actor can.

Cudlitz is in pretty much every scene, something I hadn't even noticed until a friend pointed it out to me afterwords. Now that takes some doing! To own the film so effortlessly that you don't realize just how few actors were actually involved in this project. Cudlitz's performance is never contrived. 'Dark Tourist' puts to good use his voice in a superbly sentient narrative thread that runs throughout the film. It draws you in, closer and closer towards to the inner turmoil that is Jim Tahna.

Michael has an acting style that utilizes subtle nuance and body movement so naturally it's a joy to watch and both build towards a perfect picture of a tightly wound man who's hurting beyond measure.

Whilst Cudlitz is definitely the lynchpin of the film, Melanie Griffiths brings her unique brand of vulnerability to a role so sympathetically portrayed that the whole cinema actually gasped in despair during one pivotal scene. I won't elaborate. You'll know which one when you watch! And Pruitt Taylor Vince always has immense presence and in this film he adds a hugely important layer to the plot.

"Dark Tourist' is not pleasant viewing in any shape or form.

This film will certainly leave you thinking 'What if'. What if the characters involved simply had someone who listened to them at a time when they needed it most? It will certainly make you uncomfortable because it reflects the general murky malaise society has towards understanding and treating people with mental health issues and it leaves you questioning what would happen if more people had the help they needed, when they needed it most.

So yes. I thoroughly recommend 'Dark Tourist'. It's a film for people desperately fed up with formulaic cinema, filmmaking that is afraid to challenge and it flips the bird at writers and producers content in churning out bland cookie cutter films."

For one thing, the dialog was so low in volume I had a hard time hearing it. The acting and story line was the worst I have seen. Melanie Griffith should be ashamed of herself for starring in this TRASHY movie. IT REALLY SUCKS!!! DON'T WATCH IT.