A Dark Song

Horror movies come in many forms. Some are about the gore, some are about the creatures, and some are just plain disturbing. Though i like many a horror film with those qualities, a true horror fan of the genre also has to appreciate the horror films that try to get under your skin without trying have someone's face ripped off. A Dark Song may be subtle but it is a horror tale nonetheless. What makes this a gem is the ride to the climax. With great performances from the two main characters and it's haunting score it's able to create a tense dark atmospheric mood so that when the horror elements do begin to appear it makes them far creepier than most films with a bigger budget. Most horror movies can be compared to other horror movies because they're filled with the usual clichés but this is a unique horror film with a redeeming quality that is very rare in films of this genre..if your looking for a movie where people are being chased by monsters or tortured by inbreds then this movie is not for you..but if your looking for a horror movie with an intelligent approach then turn down the lights, get your popcorn and let this movie work its magic

Prepare yourself for another slow, slow, incredibly slow burn. Apparently, you need to be an occultist to fully appreciate this! I felt like A Dark Song worked on a couple levels, though I'm not certain this was this writer/director's full intention. I enjoyed the character study aspect -- two people holed up in the same house for months on end, and second, this is sort of a mystery -- as in, is this guy just some psycho? Drama/mystery, not a horror movie. Ultimately, you're looking for a great payoff with a slow burn... and frankly, I don't know if sitting through this particular 100 minutes is worth this particular payoff.

Hey, critics loved it!

Very slow-moving horror that plays its cards very close to its chest, heightened by some fine acting. Basically, a two-piece featuring the fractious relationship between posh Sophia (Catherine Walker) and coarse Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram); these two sharply written (writer Liam Gavin, who also directs, is clearly a name to look out for), beautifully played characters carry most of the film.

Maybe we have to wait a little too long for things to start happening, but we won't get as frustrated about it as Sophia, who gets very angry indeed. This is a good, claustrophobic chiller rather than a fully-fledged horror a lot of the time, although the events toward the end take on a much more gruesome nature. I thoroughly enjoyed this. My score is 8 out of 10.

At first, I was interested by the ambiguous circumstances, i.e. is this guy really helping her do magic or is he just some weirdo that's tormenting her for some reason? The premise and characters are solid enough that this is compelling enough to string you along for a while, despite a glacially slow pace, but then the big questions are answered and the mystery disappears and then things just start kind of meandering for an uncomfortably long while.

There are many more attempts to build suspense later on, but none of it really stands out. Things do take a turn that I did not expect near the end, which I won't mention, but by this point you're already 1h20m into a 1h40m movie. The "payoff" is brief and handicapped by some really lackluster effects, and the final scene will just leave you scratching your head wondering why. No, not in the sense that it's confusing in any way, it's very simple and straight forward, but it's one of those endings that's just TOO simple and sappy. So much that it makes you wonder just what the hell the point of everything the characters did over all that time was. All of that effort? For that? Ugh.

Edit: P.S. Who else is wondering what exactly all the reviews calling this movie intelligent and cerebral are about? I notice people love to throw around terms like that when referring to movies like this, yet somehow never seem to get around to explaining what was so clever about them. The movie had good dialogue and acting, but the plot couldn't have been simpler and the underlying message of the film is one we've all seen many times before across various genres, so I'm at a real loss trying to see what exactly anyone found intelligent about this movie. A lack of creatures and gore doesn't automatically make a movie intelligent, kids.

A really unusual idea; just 2 people stuck in a house performing a ritual. The realism of the setting and acting creates a foreboding atmosphere and you're left unsure if this film is about the supernatural or just human psychology. The final quarter of the film goes at a slightly different pace and overall I preferred what comes before but this film was really trying something new and different and is a really effective horror.