Dark Was the Night (2014)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great Film overall

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This is one of those films that you're either going to love or hate, as it had mixed reactions upon release. I absolutely loved this film. It gave me goose flesh! I thought Kevin Durand's acting was very natural, and I could almost feel his emotions and thoughts. The acting in general was good, and I liked the characters, as well. The back story added significantly to the depth of the emotion, making me root for the characters even more. The story was great. It was subtle, yet so scary and effective. In fact, this was one of the classiest, scariest and most effective horror films I've seen in a while. It was creepy and mysterious. The film triggered every sense - it was awesome! Oh, and what an ending!!

Dark Was The Night is a relatively engaging creature feature that benefits from appropriate pacing and adequate acting on the part of the participants. Kevin Durand delivers a fine performance as a quirky and moody character, elevating him above most generic characters in more mundane and mediocre horror flicks. I'd have to say none of the actors delivers a gut wrenchingly bad performance, though none will win an Academy Award.DWTN also proves you can make a relatively engaging horror flick without a lot of fancy CGI or FX. In addition to the calculated pacing (not too fast or too slow, IMHO), Jack Heller uses simple set creations, plot devices and staging to heighten the tension and mystery, never revealing too much too soon. Coupled with decent character development, a fairly good story line, and an above average script (for this kind of low budget creature feature), it makes the flick work for most of it's 90+ minutesAs many have observed, the movie falls victim to trite mechanisms toward the end, making it just short of anti-climactic in its predictability. The creature was somewhat interesting, but the sub- standard CGI made it less believable. Heller and the writer then proverbially club the viewer over the head with a disingenuous twist at the very end, no doubt set up to introduce a future sequel. (I will not reveal it here, as I don't want to introduce a TOTAL spoiler).Suffice it to say, DWTN is a relatively entertaining creature feature that should hold your attention throughout. Not a movie you'd need to see twice, but much better than a lot of the tripe I've been viewing lately.

A small town sheriff must overcome a family tragedy to defend the townsfolk from a fearsome beast that stalks the woods.Simple, over-earnest creature feature. It starts interesting, with good camera work, a frosty tint to the images, and a gory killing that launches us into action. Then we focus on the hero's personal problems, and eventually the pace slackens to a gloomy crawl as he works out his unremarkable psychological block. It's not the actors fault, and the rest of the cast is fine, especially the wife who gives good close up - although the climax does have silly shots of a crowd shuffling about the place with nothing to do.The monster is handled well, making its presence known through glimpses here and there, a background growl, and mysterious prints, until the full reveal. But that's the only suspense, and even on the reveal there are implausible fights with something that has been bigged up so much for its speed and ferocity.The main problem is the script - straight as a die with no surprises (apart from a brief twist at the very end). And the dialogue is on the nose and often cringeworthy, with simple values being asserted, and bit parts trying to inject character and romance with little effect.Music was fine.Overall, weak material handled fairly well.

Wow, this film made me want to kick someone ... mainly whatever douche in a suit insisted on a) showing the monster at the end and then b) tacking a cheap "teaser" ending onto the whole thing, just in case you had missed the fact that you had just been insulted with bad CGI.As other reviewers have pointed out, this film LOOKS great. The cinematography is top-notch and the limited color palette underscores both the creepiness of the story, and the emotional troubles of the main characters. The performances are surprisingly heart-felt and subtle for a "horror movie," especially that of Kevin Durand, who sometimes comes off like Christopher Walken's sensitive (and less drop-dead weird) younger brother.Finally, I must say that the Wendigo legend is a favorite of mine, especially via Algernon Blackwood's clunky but creepy-as-hell short story.... and up until the end, Dark Was the Night is a GREAT telling of the Wendigo tale. The early not-even-glimpses of the creature are unsettling. The film has pretty much everything going for it, and then ...... in the climactic battle at the end, we see the monster, dead on. And it is lousy. I reeled from its CGI crumminess. I think I may have gasped. I felt ripped off, fooled, violated and insulted. But that producer in a suit (see above) wasn't done with me yet. The very last thing HAD to be the equivalent of the giant quivering "?" at the end of so many B movies in the 50s. And all that subtlety is flushed straight down the crapper for the sake of a cheap shot.I'd love to talk to the director and find out what happened. Given the quality of the bulk of this film, the ending CANNOT have been his idea.