In a Dark Place (2006)

Thanks for the memories!

Don't Believe the Hype

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Flora and Miles have a new governess in the slightly mental, Anna Veigh (Leelee Sobieski) whom gets quite obsessed about the 'wellfare' of the children and the mysteries surrounding the previous governess. Truth be told, her frequent nightmares don't seem to help matters. This overtly sexualized rendition of 'Turn of the Screw" ranks among the bottom amongst all the numerous adaptations of the story, yet it has two things going for it and both lay underneath Miss Sobieski's magnificent bathrobe, who needs acting talent? (That was rhetorical by the way)My Grade: D

A diabolically poor attempt at creating a ghostly thriller. A somewhat psychologically abused and fragile teacher finds work as the nanny for 2 troubled children in a huge creepy mansion house in the country. She is then confronted with hearing strange noises and other events that elude to the ghosts of previous employees haunting the house. Sounds good so far? Potentially yes, sadly in reality no. It slithered along at the pace of an arthritic snail on salt leaving the viewer (well this one anyway) wanting a refund for 90 minutes of life.The trailer and movie poster/box cover suggested the presence of suspense and gripping drama. Unfortunately there were neither. Not one scare or single moment of 'edge of seat' thrill. Isn't that why we watch these particular type of movies? You do not need blood and guts to create fear, suspense or even subtlety - look at 'The Others' or 'The ring' or 'The woman in black' or 'The Haunted' to name a few. In fact the only mystery was why the hell I sat for 90 minutes waiting for any redeeming feature. I have no idea what point this film was trying to make as any connection with the characters was lost in confusion and the point of the story unclear. The only meagre spec of salvation was a scene of mild lesbian eroticism which to be honest was irrelevant to anything in the plot and possibly designed to prevent the watcher from falling asleep!!! Ultimately, In a dark place is exactly where this film should be left......... to remain for ever!

The idea behind this movie wasn't terrible-a retelling of the classic psychological horror story "The Turn of the Screw", only, let's remove all of the ambiguity from the the character of the Governess, and make her an overt nutter suffering from childhood trauma. There are no ghosts- Little Miles and Flora are threatened by their crazy delusional governess. BUT, the movie falls flat on its face- bad acting, bad direction, bad script, bad editing...Leelee is particularly disappointing- has she given a good performance as an adult? The four points are for LeeLee's breasts (they are easily worth two a piece!) Want a good "haunted house" scare? See instead- "The Innocents", "The Haunting" (the original, not the remake), "The Uninvited" (best séance scene in history), and, most recently, "The Orphanage".

I was walking past In A Dark Place one day at a rental store and I saw Leelee Sobieski on the cover of the film. It looked something similar to recent movies such as The Return and The Grudge, which I thought both of those films were very satisfying, even though this ended up being nothing like them really, so I decided to give this movie a try.At first, it looked really cool, when I put it in that is. The first near hour or so were fine, just fine, nothing special, but I was enjoying the build up and performances to an extent. Then, it took a turn for the worst. Everything started going horribly wrong and as the film dragged on I became more depressed, and more depressed with how the outcome of the film was turning out. The storyline just gets so ridiculously poor and overrated, and everything they had built up with mildly entertaining values were thrown out the window near the end of the film. Why, how, Leelee, I thought you were great! What made you take part in this movie when you saw how the character development is demolished in the last half hour, or did you even notice? Sure, there was some stuff I found in the movie that was entertaining, I have already stated that, but I felt as if my insides were going to explode from how horrible the last half hour of the film was and how horrifically boring and inane Sobieski and everyone elses' character became. If you love Leelee Sobieski enough, avoid this movie, because I really was expecting more from her and the movie itself seeing as how I enjoy her as an actress. I'm sure her heart will thank you if you don't watch this, for now every time she hears about her role in this film, as often as that probably isn't, I bet she falls to the ground and bursts into tears. . .