Les ténèbres

Can this even be reviewed without spoilers. Well, maybe. Will give it a go.

This had elements going for it. Cast was creepy, location was creepy, lighting was well done.. it did not feel forced. It is a very steady and slow paced flick.

As the movie progresses it begins to build animosity and mistrust between the characters for reasons so preposterous you as the viewer are confused. That stems from the lack of communication between the characters about what is going on around them. That is actually on purpose.. perhaps he is trying to protect the kids, perhaps he doesn't know. Anyway, the man is portrayed as a semi villain yet caring enough of a person. It never really lets the viewer settle on either side of him, you are constantly wondering if somebody will go full postal...

This movie gives you vibes of 10 cloverfield lane where the woman is kept against her will for her safety as she doesn't believe or understand the world. This is very much the same play out here except replace woman with kids. And i don't have an issue with it from an originality or execution side. What i have an issue with is that after it ends you realize it is a big nothingburger. You have no idea what happened, you have no idea what will happen and nothing is explained. There are vague suggestions as to what is going on but none of it really fits together too well. It is so vague and open ended you can fit in any explanation you want and it will probably work... But then, why watch this?

It is a movie with no plot. Just a collection of scenes that lead nowhere. It is unfortunate because the scenes that we have are decently well done. There is that tension, that anticipation, that creepiness.. But ultimately it is wasted because there is no purpose to any of it. It just a movie that never got finished.

This will get your attention and keep it, and then at the end, smack you with a big fat "haha" and go to credits. The haha is the realization you will never get any closure from this. It also felt like a troll, but i have to write it off as incompetence or lack of money. I mean the budged is no more than 200$ for this and they used it all up and had to end it. No other explanation here.

5/10 because what is there is not horrible at all. 5/10 because it will make you hate how it wasted the good things it had going.

Watch it but just expect nothing out of it.

Nothing happens, don't waste your time watching this film. The whole argument could be reduced to 10-15 seconds.

I don't mind films with narratives that are a bit vague and can be left open to interpretation by the viewer, but there is a limit, and for me this film went way over that limit. It set up compelling mystery after compelling mystery in the first 2 acts then ended abruptly with no answers to any of them. When the film ended I felt cheated, it was like the filmmakers had no idea how to answer any of the mysteries their film had set up in the first 2 acts so decided to not even bother trying and instead introduced even more mysteries into the 3rd act that were left unanswered as well.

I can think of at least half a dozen plot threads in this film that were left unanswered, and I don't just mean left open to interpretation by the viewer, but unanswered. That's not fun, that's not artsy, that's just plain good old fashioned poor storytelling. It's a shame because the first 2 acts that set everything up were so good.

4/10

Interesting at first... Builds up tons of questions to the audience... Then it just finishes, leaving you with a feeling of having waste time in a story that tells you basically the plot: "in an apocaliptic world, a father tries to maintain.his family, his children want to find the truth"... Nothing develops, nothing's ends, you get nothing... Good acting though.

While lots of mysterious and intriguing things happen, you won't be satisfied unless you like not getting answers in spades. This is definitely another It comes at night , like other people have noted. At least with that one you get a good idea of what's happening. This one felt like someone really wanted to make a movie but left things undone because of lack of budget. I cant recommend this. Its too bad. Had some great things going for it.