Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Dark Was the Night

Jack Heller – 2014 – USA
 
Better than average creature-feature starring Kevin Durand and Lukas Haas as sheriff and deputy, respectively, of a small northeastern town called Maiden Woods who are forced to contend with a cryptozoological beast driven towards civilization for food when its home is disturbed by loggers.  While not groundbreaking in any way, the film is admirably understated in its slow-building suspense, spending much time with the central characters and their personal issues before they realize how serious their supernatural crisis really is.  Screenwriter Tyler Hisel and director Heller are also wise in keeping glimpses of the monster infrequent and brief up until the film’s climax.  When it does appear, it is pretty disappointing, looking as though stepped right from the airwaves of the SyFy Channel.  There is also some pretty heavy-handed religious analogies going on that are hard to take.  But overall, it’s a unique enough and character-driven movie that boasts a good handful of scares and gripping sequences.

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