Horror Review #17 - Dark was the Night (2014)

Yep, I know, still behind, but feeling a bit better.  Only 3 reviews to make up before I catch up.  Expect a busy week of posting unless I go see some fall colors somewhere.  Halloween horror season!  Kicking back, watching horror movies, why?  Because I like them!  Fun stuff.  :-D

Dark Was The Night (2014) begins with a logging camp cutting through some old timber in a far-away portion of the forest.  Jesse's crew of lumberjacks seems to be running late, and it's starting to snow.  The foreman is getting pissed, and it looks like he'll hav to head on over to where Jesse's crew is doing their lumberjack thing to see what the fark is going on.  Only, looks like the only thing left of Jesse is his good right arm.  Well.  Coroner will conclude it was an accidental death.  Axe mishap.  Yea.  When you and I both know....  uh huh.  It's coming.  wait for it...  not yet....  nooootttttt yeeetttt....  yep!  All hell has broken loose.

Dark was the Night was kind of a surprise to me.  First, it's got Kevin Durand, from the Strain, and so many other roles that I am surprised I had no idea who he was, playing a bereaved sheriff.  His new partner, Donny (played by Lukas Haas), is from New York, was recently shot, and seems to be looking for some quieter pastures.  I guess since we're in a horror movie, Donny picked the wrong town to live the quiet life in.  None of the rest of the cast looked to be well-known, but the action revolved around these two veteran actors, so the supporting cast is basically just a bunch of extras you're sure are about to be slaughtered.

This movie was a little on the low-budget side, with special effects on the level of your average Syfy movie, but used to much better effect.  The build-up and tension created some awesome atmospheric suspense.  You know something is out there, and you know it's killing, but you don't hardly ever get to see the damn thing.  As the title of the movie tells you in advance, the night is pretty goddamn dark out there, and you'll be lucky if you see the thing before it kills you.  Between the palpable sense that this thing is stalking the residents of the town, and the (minor spoiler) running gun battle with the thing at the end, the movie does a good job of evoking some creepy fear because you just have no idea what the hell is out there til the end.  End minor spoilers.

I caught this one on Netflix, and it's definitely worth a watch, for the atmosphere and suspense alone.  Might even be worth some repeat viewing.  Maybe aspiring film-makers could use this horror flick as a basis for what to do with a low budget and good actors.  And it's not short, either, at an hour and 38 minutes it's just over an hour and a half worth of action, sprinkled with intermittent bits of cheesy goodness, mushy stuff, and character development.  In short, I liked it, but the special effect at the end could have been better done, I think.

That's all for tonight.  Hopefully I can find better things to watch tomorrow and start catching up.  Til then, enjoy yourself some horror movies...  Pretty soon it'll be all about Xmas!