The Dark Valley (2014)

Good movie but grossly overrated

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The Dark Valley truly blends beauty and horror in the most exhilarating way imaginable. What is amazing about this film is it's ability to provide a context to the evils of rape and oppression. The one scene that sticks with me most is when Lukas and Luzi dance after their wedding. This scene is able to inspire the horror and violence of the events about to take place without actually depicting them. Very few movies can do this.In the same way that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo made me bite my nails and want to turn it off, this movie succeeded. Long story short - it's a great film. Get ready to scream for the blood of the bad guys and to think afterword about the evils of human nature.

Greider enters a time capsule: a town sworn to isolation and poverty, and probably the very spare life many of our near ancestors escaped from. Life in the Alps wasn't about skiing and hot chocolate for these folks. Wood must be gathered once a year; not just for burning, but for building. Bread from harvest was baked in community ovens. Running out of food was real and everyone depended on everyone else. Enter the stranger who wears Spurs and comes from the American West. The camera he brings and the photographs he captures are our first hint something new is being introduced, but the plot takes hold and we are caught up in a secret so big and dangerous we cannot see a solution. Mountains, snow, fear and blood encapsulate this story, and Sam Riley's Greider is perfect. Masterful acting by the full cast.. There is some undiscovered talent here. History is paramount to this drama and those of you who love history will applaud this great "western".

I came upon this movie not knowing anything about it. All I knew was that the main character was an actor I found to be truly wonderful in another movie I had seen. I really enjoyed this movie a lot! It was well written. The small details here and there really helped make the movie even better! From the costume to the scenery, the animals,and the characters. Every little touch such as ice in a bowl were just perfect. I found the story enjoyable enough to want to watch it again and again. The opening song says it all, you just have to listen and you might not fully know it's meaning until you've seen the movie through to the end.

"The Dark Valley" is a truly unique film. It mixes the usually stereotypical Heimatfilm genre with classic Italian American western parts and adds a gloomy film noir atmosphere to it. This genre is extremely rare and precious in German-speaking regions where one gets mostly exposed to the stereotypical Heimatfilm and extremely redundant crime fiction genres. I wish there were more movies like this from these countries.This collaboration between German, Austrian and Italian artists takes place in a dark and isolated valley in the Alps where a sinister family has established a reign of terror and controls everybody and everything. One day, a silent cowboy from Texas that seems to hide a dark secret comes to town just before the winter arrives and asks to stay there. As soon as the snow is falling the valley becomes a natural prison and one of the members of the sinister family gets brutally killed in the fog while cutting down a tree. A few days later, another member of the family gets murdered during a hunting trip in the woods. Soon, the surviving family members suspect the charismatic cowboy to be connected to these horrible crimes and the young man has to go into hiding.While the story itself might not be original and the pace of the movie a little bit slow at times, the rest of the film is absolutely outstanding. The acting is charismatic and realistic. The Tyrolean dialect adds a lot to the authenticity of this great film. This accent is a little bit tough to understand at times for somebody from North-Western Germany like me but it adds a lot of charm to the film. The locations are just as stunning. The churches, farms and stores are broken, dark and dirty and the mountains, rivers and woods are misty, somber and wild. The dark lighting techniques and the menacing yet decent soundtrack only add to the atmosphere. The numerous fight scenes and shootings are brutal, graphic and raw but never feel exaggerated. The film has almost no special effects and feels almost like a documentary at times. There aren't many dialogues in this film but like many great films, it doesn't need overlong conversations since the overall atmosphere, body language and the landscapes are speaking for themselves.This haunting movie is highly recommendable for anyone who likes westerns, those interested in German, Austrian and Italian culture and fans of profound and sinister movies. You won't forget this outstanding experiment anytime soon and I'm really hungry for more.