The Dark and the Wicked

A dreadful, disquieting & diabolical nightmare that reeks of death & foreboding from the first frame to the last, The Dark and the Wicked is one of those horror entries that relies on its silently brooding & gradually escalating atmosphere to crawl under the skin of its viewers, and is a haunting, unnerving & bone-chilling terror that more than lives up to its name.

Written & directed by Bryan Bertino (The Monster), the story begins on a highly promising note and the setup, location & stylistic choices only help magnify the bleak mood & sinister aura. There is a lurking & looming presence of an evil that lingers over the family and although Bertino touches on the themes of love, loss, grief & guilt, he doesn't dig deeper to aptly explore those topics.

While it would've helped to have the story journey inward into its characters and the characters themselves to be more fleshed out & exhibit more depth, the film still makes do with the given script, and conjures some genuinely effective scares with its eerie camerawork & ominous score. It doesn't quite stick the landing but the uneasy feeling is sustained throughout and the performances are convincing.

Overall, The Dark and the Wicked is one of the creepiest films to surface in recent years and is absolutely unforgiving & unrelenting in its intensity & uncomfortable aura it exudes. The uncanny cinematography & unsettling sound design are major contributors to its effectiveness but with a more refined script, this could've gone places. A cursed chiller with inescapable devilry brewing under the surface, Bryan Bertino's latest delivers on its title.

Crack out the popcorn, set up the munches, have some drinks at the ready as once you engage this film fully you'll be engrossed, with such a wonderful slow burn that builds and builds to the point of no turning back, much like a good book if you hit that page you wish you could turn it back a page and stop there. So sit back and enjoy.

Acting: actually very, very good. Cinematography: again, A+. Special effects: that all depends on your taste of blood and gore. Personally, I thought it had some gruesome parts, but not over the top. Here's why I only rated it an 8 out of 10: scare factor. In the beginning of the movie, the mystery of the entity is definitely malevolent and seems to enjoy taking its time before a kill. Cool concept. But as the movie moves along, the scares become more predictable and the main characters, as seemingly level headed as they are, don't act rationally, in my opinion, and then the movie becomes a house of cards at the end and collapses without a proper ending. I'm trying not to give too much away because I don't want you to think it's a bad movie. Just could have been better, and that was disappointing. I would, however, recommend it as there are not many options for good movies period right now. Compared to some of the other junk I've had to endure lately, this is like the Hope Diamond.

I don't normally review many movies, but this one was worth it. Its a great movie if you need to stay up late, especially if you live alone in the country like me. Loved it.

This one is a hard horror movie to watch and yet it is brim packed with everything that scares you; from the shadows on the wall to the dark figure in the corner of the room, to the gross out scene with the flock of goats and the slick symbolism with the devil and the goats on the farm. The director uses many horror techniques so well it is hard to fault even though the film is very slow and to be fair to the other reviewers it is somewhat boring and will not appeal to many people; even die hard horror fans will find this one hard going!

The film gives the viewer no easy ride with no explanations, no backstory, not much characterization and no simple ending but builds such a lugubrious atmosphere of dripping dread in the style of movies like Hereditary that you cannot but be chilled to the bone with its minimal but effective style.

I want to give it 4/10 but I have to give it credit for being "real horror" and not "Hollywood horror" so it gets an always fair and honest review from me with a solid above average 6 hatchets on the horror scale for this very different approach to horror movie making!