Darklands

I stumbled across this obscure Welsh gem in a cinema in Reykjavík, Iceland, the year it was released. Basically it's similar in many ways to the infamous The Wicker Man (1973), though I much preferred Darklands, not least because of the black metal aesthetic and the excellent industrial music of Test Dept., whose album Gododdin has had a profound and lasting impact on me.

Julian Richards "Darklands" is a modern cult thriller-noir that plays on classic misbeliefs of Celts, pagans and gypsies based on common misconceptions that run through European society (not that the Americas are exempt from such poor quality judgment of cultural differences). The movie is a traditional display of western giallo film making and "Darklands" is as good an example of cult-pagan genre storytelling than contemporary films such as "Spellbinder" and "The Wicker Man". The story follows journalist Frazer Truick as he investigates the mysterious death of the brother of trainee journalist Rachel Morris. Delving deeper, Truick becomes convinced that the tragedy was murder, committed by a bizarre religious cult. But as the evidence unfolds, things take on a more sinister and potentially lethal significance for the reporter, as he becomes embroiled in devil worship, witchcraft and ultimately human sacrifice! (That is the official synopsis).

For me this film is a captivating crime thriller and great example of 20th Century noir. The story is plays on mystery, intrigue and suspense in a classic style that is often associated with Italian giallo-most notably Argento's work. Even with the very obvious culture insensitivity that plagues the film, "Darkland" is a very interesting and mesmerizing story that slowly builds suspense through melodrama and eerie atmospheric effects. I did find the view of pagans, Celts and gypsies as some humanized boogeymen wrought with villainous intent a tad offensive, but in proper context as a fictional setting it is easy to swallow.

The sound effects and cinematography used for "Darkland" is traditional 80's and 90's creepiness one expects in these suspenseful stories. The characters are classic and mysterious, well developed if needed and never over-indulged to the point of annoyance. Visually the film entertains with moments of post-industrial, neo-primal experimental theatrics that creates a wild urban paganism aesthetics. Usually these images are saved for post-apocalyptic or future-dystopia films. The witchcraft, or primitive traditional religious elements where minimal but when on screen became very effective. Mostly this is a great conspiracy, crime noir. "Darklands" is a very cool, classic cult thriller that offers a great witchy story, and plenty of suspense. The blood and gore is almost non-existent which was a bit of a bummer but over-all I enjoyed the film.

An industrial Celtic cult is recruiting people from the local steel mill and leading them in pagan sacrifice rituals - I wonder if it could have anything to do with the gypsies just outside the mill? This is an example of one of the plot drivers that this film relies on - ones that are pretty obvious from the start.

However the film also has plenty of other plot twists that are revealed along the way, most of these are good but too many rely on coincidence or overlooking the facts. The whole cult-conspiracy thing is a bit unbelievable - maybe the Wickerman succeeded with a similar plot due to the island setting - here set in Wales it's not as easy to accept. But if you can overlook this then it's actually quite good.

The performances are OK - Fairbrass doesn't quite bring off the fear and confusion that he should but does a reasonable leading man. Rowena King is good as the love interest Rachael, she's there to add a bit of sex to the proceedings - however that said the love scenes between her and Fairbrass are laughable, clearly neither agreed to be naked on screen and their orgasms are harder to believe than a Celtic cult sacrificing Welsh people. The other characters are mainly rent-a-Celtic-thugs or small parts - you can usually tell whose bad or good easily enough due to the performances.

The plot is reasonable but regularly fails to convince - with most good films you're able to buy into it at least while you're watching it. For most of it however the twists keep your interest. When I read the comments on these pages I watched this in anticipation for the shock ending - however it's not there! You pretty much know how it's going to end 20/30 minutes before it happens. It's still an OK ending but lets not make this out to be what it isn't - a reasonable TV special that got some lottery money to become a film.

An interesting take on the concept of getting Welsh National Film Council grant to make a film that made the Welsh look rather like COMPLETE LOONS!

I had no idea to expect before watching the film, and a quick look at IMDb had me worried, especially as two of the main characters who had allegedly only just met were shagging by day 2 of the plot.

The Welsh journalist has a dodgy east-end geezer accent, there are several inconsistencies in the story ("take him to room six, i will be along in a minute" - he is put in room 4).. but although kind of predictable, more than slightly cheesy, possibly quite tasteless and definitely lacking in any depth of plot; somehow a reasonably watchable sort of horror/shocker film does manage to fall out the far end.

The druidy types come in subspecies of hippy druidy girls, madmax meets punk blokes, strange beardy cardigan wearing gypsies on a caravan site, steel workers, the NHS, the local police, the council... in fact, the whole town bar the mad priest appears to be plotting a sacrifice....

Not much one poor reporter can do in the face of so much adversity, but he tries....

I really enjoyed this and I like this type of movie. It's a mystery thriller with a religious element. I'm not saying this is perfect and I can tell some probably won't like it, but for me it kept me on the edge of my seat. The story is good, I liked the main character, I liked the acting, it looked good, good atmosphere, interesting religious/cult theme, good suspense, and I liked the Welsh setting of the movie.

It's like a film noir movie. Although some say it's like the wicker Man, I found it original. I think it has a deeper meaning somewhere in it about Christianity Vs the old pagan religions that used to be norm in the UK.

I can't think of anything I didn't like about the movie.