Review by Chris Rennirt
The Dark and the Wicked begins with a woman (actress Julie Oliver-Touchstone) living on an isolated farm in a nondescript, rural area, with her dying, bedridden husband (Michael Zagst). The son (Michael Abbott Jr.) and daughter (Marin Ireland) return for their father’s impending death and to assist their mother. Mother warned them not to come…but, of course, they came anyway. Mother tells them many times to leave, after they arrive…but, of course, they stay anyway. What decent, loving children would do otherwise? But, as we discover soon enough, mother knows best! An evil, deadly force is determined to get what it wants, and God be with (hopefully) anything in its way!
Louise (Marin Ireland) with her dying father (Michael Zagst)
The movie’s directing “force,” Bryan Bertino, also knows best, and he’s equally determined (and successful) in getting what he wants…on film. Bertino (also writer and producer of The Strangers, 2008) is a true master at portraying the presence of evil all around, as an ambient force in the air. He creeps us out (and makes it all scary as $#@%) using camera angles and techniques tapping into our deepest, most innate fears. Wide-angle shots show us a whole room, or large area, in which anything could happen, somewhere—maybe somewhere we aren’t looking. (Alarming background horrors are intermittent and unpredictable.) Think of how it is to walk in a darkened room, already scared, knowing that anything could be happening anywhere, could be coming from any direction to get you, and you can’t watch everything at once. The lack of control we have in seeing and knowing is what scares us, even if nothing is there. But, in the recesses, in the shadows, subtle enough to miss, something terrifying is there! Bertino is, what’s more, a master at keeping us on edge in familiar places, places where we should be comfortable—a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom—making them eerily unfamiliar, unpredictable, and truly frightening. There, he gives us only glimpses of what lurks in the darkness; our imaginations fill in the blanks with things far worse.
Marin Ireland (as Louise) in The Dark and the Wicked
Actor Micheal Abbott Jr., in an interview included on the movie’s bluray, talks about how he considers the setting (the farm, the barn, the farmhouse, etc.) to also be a character. I agree. As mentioned earlier, the director’s approach to filming make the setting, so saturated with evil, more than a backdrop, beyond a place in which characters simply exist. The setting itself is filled with horror, ever foreboding, like a monster, to be feared on its own as much as anything within it.
Xander Berkeley (from The Walking Dead) as the ominous priest in The Dark and the Wicked
Bertino, also the film’s writer, also smartly avoids oft-seen tropes of failed fright tales galore. He gives the son and daughter, Michael and Louise, a reason to stay, even after things get ridiculously satanic, enough to scare most people away, running as they leave. This is done by making the bedridden father too ill to be moved anywhere else. A whole scene is actually devoted to a doctor visit where they are told exactly that. This cleverly keeps the siblings from being the usual idiots in horror films, staying too long, just to keep the horror going. But, just when the excuse begins to overstay its welcome, when we expect it will keep them at the farm beyond the limits of anyone with a brain, something unusual and expected happens. I’ll just say that it saved the film from a cardinal sin of horror clichés, but didn’t rob the movie of its blood—not a single drop! It actually adds an ultimate coup-de-grace moment that couldn’t have been better. (Yes! I’m being intentionally cryptic to avoid spoilers.)
Michael Zagst (as David Straker) in The Dark and the Wicked
With all of that, what could be better? A lot! The Dark and the Wicked‘s horror is as exceptionally physical and visceral as it is atmospheric and ambient. Images of spiders crawling out of mouths, fingers chopped off on cutting boards like carrots (even cut into smaller slices!), and slit throats gushing are just some of the “exceptional” delights. In the end, it’s all a well-balanced, more-satisfying combo meal for fans wanting more.
Some of the most painful wounds can be self-inflicted. Ouch!
Finally (and better yet), actor Xander Berkeley (from The Walking Dead) makes a surprise appearance as an ominous priest, far from the typical type in most tales of demonic doom. Although he is only in the film a short ten minutes at most, his performance is a standout that steals the show (at least during this time on screen). His wide-eyed stares and exaggerated motions make us uneasy with who he is (really), and what his motives are (really). Actor Michael Abbot Jr. also talked about (in the bluray’s bonus featurette) how Berkeley showed up one day on set, did his job in about thirty minutes, and left. Abbott also described how Berkeley posed for photos with a spider on the brim of his hat, making sure the spider was perfectly positioned in every shot, as if it too was an actor–a member of SAG, no less! (Yes, I digress; but how interesting and it is!)
A glimpse of evil can be worse than seeing it plainly and completely.
The Dark and the Wicked is the first in a series of horror films I’ve watched lately (and like so many others) that ends with the speed of an ax taking off a head. Suddenly, it’s over, and the heads (or credits, ha, ha) roll! And how that type is so popular these days! While it gives you plenty to think about (and look for in the next dark room you enter), it may or may not be to your taste. But, for horror hounds like me, there’s enough food for thought in the dinner that dessert isn’t necessary.
Poster art for The Dark and the Wicked, easily among the creepiest I’ve seen…ever!
The Dark and the Wicked is also the first horror film I’ve seen exclusively from the horror-streaming service Shudder…and it makes me want to see more. While the movie isn’t perfect, its flaws are offset well with a story that’s truly scary and unsettling, making us feel unsafe in familiar places. It keeps its characters there, in the thick of the horror, keeping them smart in the process. It’s a movie that gets under our skin, literally, making us think twice and look around the kitchen before we cut the carrots! While it may be another that doesn’t tell us enough in the end, it sure gives us a lot, along the way, to think about…and fear!
Rocket Rating – 8
Chris Rennirt (the author of this review) is a movie critic and writer in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as editor in chief at Space Jockey Reviews. He has been a judge at many film festivals, including Macabre Faire Film Festival and Crimson Screen Film Fest, and he attends horror and sci-fi conventions often. Chris’ movie reviews, articles, and interviews appear in Effective Magazine and are published regularly on Space Jockey Reviews. His mission statement (describing his goals as a movie critic and philosophy for review writing) can be found on the “Mission” page, here at SJR. For more information about Chris Rennirt (including contact details, publicity photos, and more), click here.
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