Dark

Here is the synopsis for this movie: During a city blackout, a lonely and distraught woman becomes increasingly convinced someone is in her building. Or possibly in her apartment. False. The reality is: Kate seems to be unhappy in her relationship with Leah. Yes, there is a city wide blackout, based on reality in fact. Yes, I'd say she's pretty convinced someone is in her building, they are called neighbors. It wasn't a possibility that someone was in her apartment, it was fact. Kate's neighbor John walked into her place drunk, thinking it was his place, realizes his mistake, takes a piss and goes home. Does Kate stay home lonely and distraught? Um, no, she gets all dressed up and goes to a bar and picks up a dude. Sure some paranoia sets in after she smokes a marijuana cigarette, but she's really never in any danger except from maybe herself. It's actually a decent movie, just the description is way off...

Methodically paced, psychological thriller with a riveting performance by Whitney Able. This is an existential, character driven piece, deeply layered with subtext which can't be fully appreciated upon first viewing. It's more experiential than plot driven. In that aspect it reminded me of many superb thrillers from the 60's like "Don't Look Now" and "Repulsion". Basile has a very distinct vision here and I hope this underrated film will find it's audience. Recommended for a film literate viewer.

First of all, I must say I really enjoyed this movie. This is a very good character study, and this movie builds tension and suspense quite masterfully. My major problem with it is that starting from the bar scene most of her actions make no sense. There's clearly an increased potential for danger in the dead of night during a blackout, so why she so stubbornly refused the accompaniment home is strange. I get that she felt rejected after being so forward with Benny, but he didn't exactly say no to sex, so much as 'let's call it a night.' The night would've ended the same way if he'd said yes anyways. She was obviously way too drunk to be by herself too. In this case, while his actions are creepy, in a way he did the right thing by making sure she got home okay. The scene where she's talking to herself doesn't make sense without context. Is she schizophrenic? Was that the pill she was spit out? If so, why smoke weed to make the hallucinations even worse? Throughout she continuously leaves the door unlocked, often locking it only after something weird happens. She keeps the window to the fire escape open, and keeps leaving the room to peer into the darkness, away from the safety of her home. She even abandons her flashlight because she can't see the bottom three stairs. The entire scene on the fire escape is stupid. It's like she's intentionally making herself as vulnerable as possible. Also, how does a grown woman not understand power outages? She let out all the cold air in her fridge and tried to connect to the internet. I do like the ending, and her realization of events. I find her fear and disgust for her male neighbor realistic and saddening. Only in the end does she laugh and realize how similar they were. It gets a 6.5 from me. P.S. I didn't see any undercurrents alluding to rape, but maybe I missed them. Any past trauma could've led to her behavior, so I'm leaning towards abuse. I just saw it all as depression and self-harming.

Kate Naylor (Whitney Able) lives with her loving girlfriend (Alex Breckenridge) in NYC. It is clear Kate has all kind of issues and may be unstable. When NYC goes dark during the 2003 blackout, our authors spring into action and use this as symbolism as emotionally and mentally, Kate is in a dark place. Get it. It would be soooo Indie clever if it hadn't been done a gazillon times before. What we don't find out is Kate's real issues as she describes her life's problem in the abstract. We hear her say these clever Indie lines like, "I tried to be different" and my all time favorite, worth Indie extra bonus credit "I'm the real me." We have a long drawn out boring scene, not to be confused with the rest of the film outside of the opening lesbian sex scene, where our yoga instructor is smoking a cigarette while talking to a guy who may or may not be there. Here she is saying lines that don't match up with her lips, i.e. she has a cigarette in her mouth while we hear her speaking. That is fine, but I don't know is this by design, i.e. a clue that the guy is not there and she is crazy, or is this some bad over dubbing because they decided to write in some lines post production. If you like watching people buy paper towels and crazy people talking to themselves but not really saying anything, then this film is for you. I couldn't get past someone creating another artsy film and just going through the motions they learned the first day of film school. Guide: Swearing, F/F sex nudity (Whitney Able, Alex Breckenridge)

I saw this on NF, and it was labeled as a thriller, but if you expect a thriller, you're going to be very disappointed. It turned out to be a very low-budget drama about a washed up 33 year-old model with some serious mental problems being left alone during the 2003 blackout in NYC. The building and the neighborhood are made to look very sleazy, so even though it was shot in Manhattan, it's probably supposed to be Bushwick, Brooklyn, like it said on her driver's license. It has a very uh, interesting first scene, but after that, it settles into a character study of the lead character. The only good scene after that is the scene where the lead walks home drunk from a bar, and is made fun of by some kids in the neighborhood. She starts yelling curses at them, and they start cracking up in laughter at her. Other than that, it's basically a one woman show till the seemingly tacked on ending. As usual with low budget films, there are the typical phony, ten star reviews by people involved with the film, so that sunk it down another star for my rating.

Twenty-somethings Kate and Leah are in a rocky relationship when Leah plans on heading out of town. Kate lives in the heart of NYC, pretending to like it just to make her relationship survive. Once a blackout occurs, Kate starts to have an internal struggle on what to do without Leah and coping on her own. I would have rather had Leah stay during the blackout and Kate go out of town, but the actress that played Kate (Whitney Able) did a superb job at bringing out all of Kate's character flaws. Leah didn't show any character flaws while she was onscreen. There are some editing flaws - as in the sound doesn't match up correctly with the characters' lips on screen. This happens about five times in the movie. Check out this movie if you like psycho-dramas. I watched this on Netflix.

Oh my holy,merciful God.This movie managed to accomplish what thousands of movies before it have failed to do: Brink me to the threshhold of nausea from the inanity and ambiguity that reeked from this film.With the possible exception of the puzzling lesbian sex scene in the opening,this movie would have received no stars (Oops,I guess that's not allowed).Not even the prescence of the very talented Alexandra Breckinridge could save this movie;the primary reason that I watched it in the first place.What,for instance,happened with very noble Benoit? The last we see of him he is entering Kate's apartment,presumably to have sex,and then nothing after that.Are we supposed to assume that she imagined the whole encounter? Or was this film just directionless enough to not bother showing him after that;that he had sex with Kate and drifted away into the night? And who the hell did Kate sink the hammer into at the end? We're led to believe that it was her girlfriend Leah because all the audience sees is feminine arm.But why would Leah(assuming it's her) practically sneak into her own apartment without even announcing her prescence or even uttering a word for that matter to a woman not very well put together mentally(the prior suicide attempt) before creeping up on her? Makes no sense whatsoever and,trust me,I'm just scratching the surface here.Film like these ,however,give me hope that I can one day make my own film and have a better than 90% chance of it not being this bad.

This is an underrated work of art. I was blown away by the performances, especially the lead Kate played by Whitney Able (who was also fantastic in Gareth Edward's Monsters). It's a slow burn thriller which builds to an ultimate and tragic finale. The intense emotions on display are really well done. Underneath the surface it's really a study of depression and mental illness with moments of such deep despair it reminded me at times of Lars Von Trier's Melancholia. I will say I think this movie was marketed wrong as a horror film and the poster art is misleading. Some reviews seem to be people expecting a "jump scare" horror movie which this definitely is NOT. If that is what you are expecting you will be very disappointed. But, if you are like me, and really like and seek out more art house, character driven, psychological thrillers this film really delivers. It's a film that will stick with you for awhile. Like Antonioni's Blow-Up, Dark is an atmospheric journey with more layers to it than appear on the surface.

WARNING: This is a thinking person's movie. After watching it the other night I was on the fence. I didn't know if I loved or hated this movie. Looking at reviews on here, it seems like other people have the same split reaction. On one hand it was NOT the movie I was expecting. From the description I thought it would be a thriller about home invaders during a blackout, instead of the slow psychological drama about a very depressed and paranoid woman who is coming apart from the inside. The blackout only works as a catalyst for her mental disintegration. After it was over I wasn't sure what the filmmaker was trying to say. Then as the next couple of days passed I realized the movie stuck with me. Whitney Able's performance was emotionally heartrending and the film has a way of getting under your skin. Certain aspects of the film started to impress me more 24 hours after I had watched it. So much of going to the movies today is about being mildly entertained for two hours and then walking out and forgetting about the experience. This film is the opposite. I can see why now some people hate it and others seem to love it. The film grew on me and I am really impressed with what the filmmakers did, especially on a low budget. It's not a perfect film but it is an emotional one which feels very personal. And that is refreshing in this day of mostly forgettable entertainment.

I literally don't have words to describe how awful this movie is. The ENTIRE time all the main character does is do random stuff around the house that has literally no point and there is absolutely no context or background. Absolutely nothing interesting happens until the last five seconds of the movie and it still doesn't explain anything. Even after finishing the movie I still had no idea what was going on or what the point of the movie was. Don't WASTE YOUR TIME. I'd rather watch sharknado for the rest of my life than watch this movie one more time.