Dark Was the Night is about a small town contending with something mysterious that seems to be stalking and killing them. Kevin Durand, everyone’s favorite rat exterminator from The Strain, which I loved during the first season and stopped after the dreadful second, plays the sheriff who is adjusting to life after a couple of hard hit losses, one unavoidable and the other contrived. Late in the film, there seems to be an environmental cautionary moral.
For the majority of the film, I thought that a Christian film production company secretly made the film because of how desperate everyone is to get the sheriff to return to church and deal with his crisis of faith. The monster is alluded to as the devil. The setup is weighted with symbolism that ultimately goes nowhere or if it does have a pay off, it is kind of hilarious where the writer’s sympathies actually lie after all that set up. I did not know before watching the film that it is loosely based on a phenomenon that occurred in February 1855 in England called The Devil’s Footprints. The more you know!
Dark Was the Night uses a blue filter over everything and confirms a rule that I’m thinking of making. If a film involves logging or a cold environment, run the other way. Filmmakers mistakenly believe that the bleak landscape is enough to invoke the atmosphere and make the film substantial. It does not. Also for a film about loss, everyone was pretty careless about making sure the kid was safe. Early in the film, I thought that he got snatched because we didn’t see him after he spotted something, but nope, he appears later in the film.
Dark Was the Night annoyed me. I don’t need to see the monster, but I also don’t need to constantly almost catch a glimpse. It was tiresome and gimmicky. I’m sorry, but I don’t find scratches and mysterious sounds scary. The majority of the dialogue can be summarized thus, “Did you see that? Look!” No, I didn’t! Stop hanging around outside at night! It felt like Big Foot was just needy and trying to stir up press again. Just get an Instagram account and a tripod. Stop with the shaky cam. You know that you want us to take your picture. When we actually do see the monster, it does not seem to be suited to a cold environment. Step your monster creation game up, son!
Dark Was the Night lasts 90 minutes, but if you start the movie after 75 minutes, it is a perfect short action horror film with a dash of Halloween: 20 Years Later, Aliens, Predator and Jurassic Park. The final scene made me laugh aloud with appreciation. We could have had a great film if it shuffled off its brooding, mournful sensibilities for the fun of the hunt. C’est la vie.