From the Dark

I'm not certain why the bad reviews. Yes, there are cliches, yes there are plot holes, yes there are some questionable choices made, but they are not Entirely stupid as in so many horror movies. I quite enjoyed it. And some of the cinematography was quite nice as well.

I am a huge fan of the horror genre.I look at other peoples reviews and it seems to me some people expect too much from movies they like realism which is fine but its horror folks it is suppose to be fiction. This movie is a survival horror it uses the typical survival formula but the director and production crew do great job building tension with the soundtrack and some clever camera work. The actors do a decent job in there roles.I watch movies to be entertainment if I want to watch realism I will watch a documentary it is after all a horror movie and a pretty decent one for me.Everyone has opinions that is the great thing about the movie world I just feel people sometimes expect a little too much.

A couple on a trip through the Irish countryside find themselves hunted by a bog creature who only attacks at night.

Director Conor McMahon has been moving up in the world of horror over the last decade. He was the first recipient of a new funding scheme from the Irish Film Board, and this allowed him to make the successful zombie film "Dead Meat" (2004). He really caught people's attention in 2012 with "Stitches", a horror-comedy with a bigger (yet still small) budget that was picked up by MPI and Dark Sky. With "From the Dark" (2014), he is again working with Dark Sky, and possibly releasing his best film yet...

For "From the Dark", he may have found his muse. Niamh Algar is a Dublin-based actress from Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. In 2014, she graduated from the Programme for Screen Acting at Bow Street (formally known as The Factory), a program led by directors John Carney, Shimmy Marcus, Kirsten Sheridan, Lance Daly and casting director Maureen Hughes. She is not only a great actress, but capable of some impressive physical feats -- she both swims and boxes.

The film has been described as "taut", and that is not a bad summary. The two best things about this are the cinematography and the simplicity. The cinematography covers all the bases, from nice wide landscape shots of the Irish countryside (a special treat for those of us foreigners) to very close, very claustrophobic filming in the dark. The variation in styles really gives the film a broad range.

But then we also have the simplicity. For almost half the film, Algar's character is alone and in the dark. She has no one to bounce lines off of and must present herself with facial expressions. This is an actor's dream and nightmare. Luckily, she pulls it off with flying colors and is now poised for bigger roles. (Hopefully she does not abandon us horror folk, though).

I came across Niamh Algar a few weeks ago when I saw her in The Virtues so decided to check out her back catalogue.

This is the tenth film)series I have seen her in and one if my favourites with her being more feminine and vulnerable here but enjoyed her ballsy roles in Pure, Deceit and The Bisexual.

There is not much in the way of script here but the film with its small cast is much better than Niamh's later horror efforts in Without Name and Censor.

The cameraman seems to be besotted with her rear, taking shots of her from behind seemingly at every opportunity.

I know the film is set at night but it is very dark and difficult to see what is happening at times.

I am not a big horror fan but there were a few occasions that I did feel squeamish here so the director did his job well.

A great low budget film which has taken Niamh onto greater things but she does seem to have gone of the rails a bit with her performances in Wrath Of Man and Raised By Wolves but I am sure they will prove to be great vehicles for her future.

I know many have given this a low mark but I did really like it and would watch it again.

I am off for a bit of comedy now to see Niamh in The Last Right. A little less tense me thinks.

From the Dark does not adopt a new premise nor does it have a big budget and yet its still a darn good Irish scare fest.

The key characters are played with likable ease by Niamah Algar and Stephen Cromwell. Their natural genuineness in the opening scenes and the amusingly familiar predicament they find themselves in, heightens the sense of dread when things take a terrifying turn for the worse.

The setting is a suitably remote farmhouse miles from anywhere and anyone, where the couple are stalked by a creepy creature inadvertently exhumed by the farmhouses owner. The creature itself never quite comes into focus but what you do see and what is hinted at,actually makes the creature, for me at least, far more frightening.

All of these elements come together to give this film a pervading atmosphere of desperate isolation and an ever building sense of dread, in the form of something unspeakable lurking in the dark.

All in all a solid horror with a subtle and cleverly managed ending. A well deserved eight out of ten from me.