British horror movie ‘Dark Song’ scares up themes that go beyond the genre – Minneapolis Star Tribune

Every person owns a phobia that chokes his or her mind. But there is one fear we all share: the unknown. Our species studies things to understand and control them. If we cant, we become hopeless, confused and, of course, frightened. The unknown can do whatever it will to us. We cant anticipate it coming until its too late.

The cold, eerie British film A Dark Song understands this principle perfectly. Liam Gavins confident first feature establishes tension and unnerving control over the audience from the start. Its descent into shock and impending doom is the sort of experience that will follow you home from the theater and nest in your nightmares. Because it moves beyond the boundaries of popcorn fright films, it also sends you away with an unexpected sense of grace. Labeling it exclusively as a horror film is too limited.

The story is grounded in our tangible real world among inconspicuous everyday characters. The opening scenes show the protagonist on a journey across bleakly beautiful north Wales in search of something unclear. Long shots of gloomy landscapes move us to search for something we hope isnt there. Seeing the troubled expression of the woman driving across those somber backdrops emotionally invests us in the plight of Sophia (played with convincing gravitas by Catherine Walker), whose son died three years earlier. Inconsolable grief has emptied her soul. She is preoccupied with the afterlife, with death and heaven and hell. She is seeking something beyond Christian theology, a way to reach across the universe and contact her dead child.

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British horror movie 'Dark Song' scares up themes that go beyond the genre - Minneapolis Star Tribune