Dark August (1976)

Just perfect...

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A man accidentally runs down a young girl and has a curse placed on him by the girl's father, an occultist. He goes to a spiritualist for help in fighting the curse.A boring movie by any stretch.Lot's of talking. Little action. Uh, guys, isn't this a horror film?The blond is hot though. Due can't act. and walks around without a shirt. Don't. Yer doughy.The basic problem with this movie is that it goes on and on with nothing really happening. Nothing scary. Nothing interesting.

I remember reading wonderful review of "Dark August" written by Stephen Thrower in "Nightmare USA" and I wanted to see the film so badly.It finally happened.A young girl is accidentally killed by a car driven by a careless city artist.The girl's grandfather curses the young man.His life is turned into nightmare as he sees a mysterious figure in black."Dark August" is well-made and captivating black magic terror tale set in a small American town.It has its share of gruesome surprises and is surprisingly well-acted.The climax is memorable and horrifying.It's a crying shame that "Dark August" is so criminally obscure.But I live and breathe such obscure horror.8 out of 10.

Obscure horror flick about a Mikhail Saakashvili lookalike stalked by the grandfather of girl whom he accidentally killed. There's certainly nothing significant about "Dark August", unless we interpret it as a '70s time capsule.* What I mean by a similarity to Robert Altman's movies is that one scene has two groups of people simultaneously carrying on conversations. Of course, I might be the only person who interpreted that. Otherwise, I would never think to equate this movie with Altman's films.Anyway, this flick is just a way to pass time. Starring J.J. Barry, Carole Shelyne and Kim Hunter.*In the past month, four 1970s icons have left this life: David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

Sal DeVito (J. J. Barry), finished with New York City's problems, and separated from his spouse, has moved to Stowe, Vermont where he maintains his occupation as illustrator, encouraged by a new romantic involvement with local painter and gallery owner Jackie (Carole Shelyne). Unfortunately, soon after his arrival in the Vermont town, Sal kills a young girl who runs in the path of his auto, arousing the animus of her grandfather with whom she lived, who then places a curse upon Sal, as seen when action opens, the camera focused upon the old man's mouth as he utters a lengthy malediction. After Sal and those close to him begin to suffer from a series of mysterious misfortunes, a friend of Jackie's suggests employing a local sorceress, Adrianna (Kim Hunter), to raise the spell, and a confrontation inevitably ensues between the Forces of Good and of Evil. This is the basis for a plot developed skillfully by director Martin Goldman who, alongside the two principal players, is responsible for a script that is cobbled as the film is being shot, resulting in a naturalistic feeling with no lapse of interest to a viewer. A high level of intensity characterizes the acting by the entire cast, with the laurels not unexpectedly going to the accomplished Hunter, who cunningly creates her role as a latter-day shamaness within a mundane setting. Cinematographer Richard E. Brooks offers a wide gamut of techniques, including frequent use of a hand held camera and effective slow tracking, while his creative use of angles and lighting produces a quality akin to cinema verité. Solely filmed on location and with little available funding, a good deal is achieved in an aesthetic sense, although shallow production values are evident in a work wherein the teeming avenues of tourist choked Stowe provide an ironic and surreal background for matters of witchcraft.