Dark Was the Night

Cool and mysterious atmosphere overcome some of the generic themes. Predominantly set in chilly blue tint, Dark Was the Night has quaint and also eerie ambiance fitting for a mystery thriller. The wintry set-up is convincingly effective on creating a sense of isolation, which keeps the suspense going even though it slightly stumbles at midway point. It's troubled by relatively bland acting and repetitive developments at some points, yet it still looks and feels refined. Several odd occurrences have happened in isolated town of Maiden Woods. The small town has small population and the anomalies understandably disturb its occupants. What may seem like a prank eventually escalates as the beastly sightings become more malicious. For a straightforward theme, it maintains the thrill well without straying too far into campy monster flick. Its biggest asset is the cinematography. Visually the movie has just the appropriate outlook for mystery horror. Details of the town and its surrounding produce morbid effect on its own. However, it may take the title too seriously. A couple of scenes in night time look overly bleak and vague. Choppy editing and jittery camera unfortunately hamper some of the intense sequences. Acting is also a bit imbalance. The sheriff looks ridden with guilt and anguish, while it may work with his sad backstory, the excessive lamentation proves to be tiresome in the long run. Several other cast deliver better performance, more emotionally involved than most horror movies have to offer. Yet, the subplots and monotonous investigation plod the pace significantly in second half before reaching its climax. There are a few inconsistencies on the presentation, it's not overly innovative either, however the solid atmosphere is primed for mystery horror. It's polished cleverly, and will most likely please fans of the genre or audience looking for light thrill.

Great on paper but ultimately a boring snoozefest I went into this with high hopes what with the great cast of Kevin Durand, Lukas Haas and an on fire Nick Damici (loved his performances in Stakeland and Late Phases), a director coming off of a pretty decent first effort with Enter Nowhere and an interesting and mysterious premise shot in classic isolationist style a la The Thing, 30 Days of Night or Pumpkinhead. Even watching Dark was the Night its tough to really pinpoint what failed this film the most, because the acting here is on point, character development is great and nothing comes off as cheesy, everything is very convincing. What did it in, in my opinion, was its massively slow start with little to nothing going on...which can be forgivable if tension is being built or there is an engrossing atmosphere to get caught up in (think Alien) but there is literally nothing happening here for well over an hour, everything is uninteresting and when things finally start to get rolling the movie ends, the payoff simply falls well short for the investment the movie asks of the viewer. To top it all off though when the monster is finally revealed its CGI, come on, its on screen for maybe 30 seconds and you couldn't spring for some decent practical effects? 4/10