The Dark Hours

I'm writing a horror screenplay. Until I saw The Dark Hours, I thought it was pretty decent. But this movie turned everything I thought I knew about horror on its head and made even some of my very favorite horror flicks seem superficial by comparison.

It's not that it's particularly original -- Chris Nolan could almost be listed in the credits for the cue that Paul Fox picks up from Memento and Following. What makes it stand out? It's damn scary -- it gave me the same visceral feeling of horror formerly reserved for classics like Halloween and Psycho. But even then it's like comparing apples to oranges because it's just as much a psychological thriller as it is a horror film. The Dark Hours takes the best from psychological thrillers, so-called "slasher flicks" and the lamentably-popular genre of torture horror and mixes them up in such a way that it seems fresh and original.

The film features a cast of talented unknowns, which works in its favor because there are no big egos drawing one's attention away from the story itself (and trust me -- you'll NEED to be paying attention to get the full effect).

Lopped off two stars for some unnecessary gore. Although it wasn't as extreme as many horror films, it didn't really add anything of value to the film -- gore doesn't produce scares, just shock.

I just saw this film at the FanTasia film festival in Montreal and was blown away by it. I really didn't expect anything and was more than surprised with the professional quality of it. High praises go to the DP for amazing lightings and colours. The filmmakers were not shy on using efficient camera movements reminiscent of Kubrick's works. The music was discreet and up to the point, no cheap tricks were used here to scare us with a sudden raise in volume or other easy silly tricks we see way too often in Hollywood movies in recent years. The acting was flawless which is not only a sign of a great scriptwriter but of good direction of actors on behalf of the filmmaker. I have seen some pretty awful dialogue in some horror films which the actors obviously couldn't say with a straight face, so it's nice to see some great dialogues in a horror film! But my appreciation didn't stop with the technical aspects of it. It was a very efficient horror film in the sense that it produced raw emotions for the audience. It doesn't make us jump up in our seats, but it makes us cringe. This is why i call this a REAL horror film as opposed to an easy-to-do thriller. The ideas were original, the cutting of the scenes led us to think of different possible ways the story could unfold, and kept us interested till the end.

Really this is a MUST SEE film. Being a Canadian film, I do hope they will get good distribution and that the world will be able to see this. This team of filmmakers and actors will go far. Keep their names in mind because I would bet that we'll be hearing them a lot in the future.

Dr Samantha Goodman(Kate Greenhouse),an attractive psychiatrist in her thirties joins her husband and sister for a weekend at a winter cottage when an unexpected guest arrives.Harlan Pyne(Aidan Devine),a violent sexual offender is convinced that Samantha conducted unethical experiments on him while she was his doctor.With the assistance of his troubled yet eager protégé Harlan forces Samantha and her family to participate in a series of nightmarish games."The Dark Hours" pleasantly surprised me.The script is tight and the violence is pretty brutal and ugly.Aiden Devine's portrayal of Harlan deserves special mention for being wickedly understated and menacing.The cinematography is dark and moody and the finale is surprising and thought-provoking.Give this harrowing film a look.9 out of 10.

The Dark Hours is an unbelievably brisk psychological scary movie that packs a lot of thrills into it's 80 minute running time. Although it's not generally the type of horror movie I like, it requires the audience to think a bit about what is going on, something which I'd rather not do in movies like this) Dark Hours is great because the lead actress, Kate Greenhouse, is great as the doctor who gets more then she bargained for when she makes a surprise visit to her ex and her sister. An ex-patient of hers also pays a visit, and he decides they're going to play some mind games, just like he endured in the clinic which he came from. Only the games have slightly sinister overtones..

All the acting is very good here. What a pleasure to see Dov Tiefenbach again. Loved him in The Delicate Art of Parking, so it was quite a surprise to see him play something nastier in this movie. Again Greenhouse is great, and all the cast pull together to make this movie a dynamite sit through.

I started to watch the movie with the thought to go to sleep in the middle of it. This was about to happened because the first part of the movie is not so "catching", but I don't regret staying awake to watch it.

But, including this, at the end I can say that the first half was better than the second. Once you understand what is happening, you may as well not watch the movie to the end.

The interesting here is more the psychological part, which is mostly at the beginning. Once when you start to think what is really happening, it is not so hard to get 2+2. I can say, after all bad movies, supposed to be horror this year, this was not a disappointment, but however, the movie could've been done much much better. This movie goes far away from the caches, created in this year, but i still think the script was written too fast, instead of making the movie go further and may be even a bit more complicated. It is annoying watching the rest of the movie knowing what is gonna happened, and at the end realizing you were all right, but despite all the bad things I wrote, the movie succeeded keeping me awake and I think that the movie deserves to be watched.