Dark Nature

Family holidays may frequently be a recipe for disaster, and this simple and effective thriller takes this maxim to its natural conclusion. A moderately dysfunctional family of mum, new boyfriend and kids drive out into the countryside to visit her mother for a holiday. Little do they know what they are getting themselves into.

Director Marc de Launay and writer Eddie Harrison combine to produce a delightfully nasty and violent thriller, which bears all the hallmarks of classic 70s exploitation cinema. This is not the only influence though, with nods also to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Gus Van Sant in restrained and sparse mode, and to horror maestro Dario Argento.

With red herrings, an appreciable sense of false revelation, a tasty dose of gore and a clean, clinical, functionally efficient feel to the picture, this is enjoyable fare. The dialogue is stripped of flannel, everything has a reason to happen despite an overall feeling of ambiguity and the direction shows an interesting ambivalence towards the central characters which poses more questions than it answers.

Dark Nature is a pleasing B movie. Small aims, nicely realised.

Saw Dark Nature in a busy Glasgow cinema too and enjoyed it. It has a good balance of Hitchcockian suspense and psychotronic-style death scenes i.e. close-ups of axes in heads; humorous expressions of shock on actors' faces. Some nods to Herschell Gordon Lewis in there too maybe. Yes, you can tell it was made on a small budget and the acting at times was a little bit suspect but the location is stunning and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the movie, which is the point I guess considering its title. Some nice music included in it too. As mentioned in one of the other posts, the use of the bear trap could possibly be the finest in cinema history.

Dark Nature is an admirable albeit flawed attempt to replicate the genre film making of the U.S that dominates our multiplexes. The film is a considerable achievement when you consider the budget involved and respect has to be shown for getting a Cineworld release, something most Scottish films can only dream of. As for the film itself, while I don't agree with delusional users who dare to make comparisons with Dario Argento's work, it's certainly more palatable than most art house fare churned out by Scottish cinema at present. The casting of the film is by in large good, with Imogen Toner, Niall Fulton and Vanya Eadie putting in solid performances. Direction while somewhat choppy at points is indicative of a first feature director and low budget, while the DOP work is solid. Whether intentional or not 'Dark Nature' does entertain the audience, something the Scottish film industry forgot how to do a long time ago. Most problems in the film occur due to the script, lending weight to the old adage that you can't make a good film from a bad script.

Films such as 'Dark Nature','The Dead Outside' along with the superior 'Outpost' represent an interesting new development in the Scottish film industry, namely production houses attempting to make effective genre films which are commercially viable. It's worth considering that studio's such as New Line cinema were built by genre fodder such as the Nightmare on Elm Street series, lets hope the three production companies involved in the aforementioned films evolve in a similar manner.

On a side note I'd also like to thank the punter with the bout of Tourette's syndrome who shouted at the screen for reminding me why Glasgow people are amongst the most ignorant cinema goers in the UK.

Firstly I cannot believe I spent £5 to purchase this DVD... Daylight robbery...

The DVD case itself seems as if this could be a good film to watch, false advertising at its best...

"Tense, twisted, shocking and very bloody." BBC Movie Cafe "Pulls out all the stops... Sinister, sparse and enigmatic" The List "Ticks all the right slasher boxes." Evening Times "Has 'Cult Following' written all over it." Daily Record.

At this moment there is a big scandal into football match fixing, where is the investigation into film reviewers? How much are they being paid to lie to the public? They would make great politicians...

Bafta Award - New Talent Awards - Nominated Best Director Winner - Best Director International - HD Festival Winner - Best Cinematography - International HD Festival.

Who ever made these nominations and awarded these awards must have been on pure Crack! Someone needs to investigate them too..

I really enjoy my films and watch plenty of them, take this from me, save yourself a £5. Don't waste 76 mins of your life watching this... Or buy it as gift for someone you really secretly hate, so they have to suffer.

The plot is..well there is no real plot.. characters aren't explained... i'm left asking myself his relevance here is what? "Very Bloody" hmm no... Kept finding myself checking to see how long I had left to watch...

Thankfully The Matrix Reloaded has just came on tele, and has calmed me enough not to launch my tele, xbox and newly acquired Dark Nature DVD through my living room window...

I love horror movies and I don't mind a good thriller but this is neither. I realised halfway through that I was watching a virtual remake of an equally pointless Italian flick I'd already seen. I was hoping I was wrong but I wasn't, this is every bit as witless and shares the same pathetic ending.

Rip up the first 40 minutes of this film and throw it away, it has no bearing on the rest of the movie. There's some killings rendered dull by the flat pace and boring killer. There's some victims but they are completely dull and lifeless too.

To cap it off there's a message about the world cleansing itself or something and pure crap that is too. It doesn't even make sense within the confines of the dreamlike situation it tries to create. This is a pitiful boring movie and anyone rating it over two stars is most definitely in it, directed it or just has no taste in movies. Don't waste your time, it's beyond terrible.