Dark Was the Night

Watched.

WHEN will they finally stop making MONO-COLOUR horror films?! I've seen dozens of ugly-looking, colourless films – a very popular trend in the recent decade or so – but this has got to be one of the most abysmal, most miserably depressing-looking horror film of them all. Apparently, this new generation of film-makers thinks that lack of colour equals eeriness. You want mood? WRITE A GOOD SCRIPT. And chuck out all the bloody "character study" nonsense nobody gives a toss about. Housewives and nerdy art students don't watch horror movies, the last time I checked. No half-way sane horror-film fan wants a Danielle Steele version of a monster story. I've rarely seen a forest film this bad, this bland. The leaves are blue, the tress are blue, the sky is blue (OK, that was to be expected). Hell, even the people are blue. Is this the land of the hillbilly Smurfs or something? A prequel to "Avatard"? Even the colours red and yellow look blue. They might as well have gone for a black-and-white movie, instead of this drab-looking crap. The premise? Highly original, as always: a monster kills off humans. How the hell did they come up with that fascinating idea? I am sure they couldn't have possibly managed to be so ingenious without the aid of at least 9 varieties of Bolivian mushrooms. Such astounding originality simply cannot come from any sane, rational, ordinary person. What TALENT. I mean, a monster – in the woods! Whatever won't they think of next. Guess what. The monster is invincible – but only until it faces the semi-wrath of two depressed cops. Then it loses, easily.

Don't believe the 10-star reviews! This movie is just incredibly badly made. The first 40 minutes or so all we get is villagers fearing a supernatural entity and the sheriff scoffing at them. Then the next 40 minutes is more nothing. Just when they finally start to make a point (however badly), the last 10 minutes turn just ridiculous. Then there's the general freaking blueness of the movie, ugh. So I'd normally wanna give this boring time thief zero stars but I'm giving it three stars because yes, deforestation is bad, Kevin Durand is awesome, and I feel for the family's problems.

I really wanted to like "Dark was the Night". Partially because it was recommended to me by a regular horror buddy whose opinions rarely ever differ from mine, and partially because you can easily tell that everyone involved in this production had the very best of intentions. Director Jack Heller clearly wanted to make an old-fashioned and atmosphere-driven monster movie; - one set in a sleepy little town full of fatigued and mentally tormented inhabitants, and with a monster that remains unseen and enigmatic until the climax. I admire that, honestly, and to a certain degree it works effectively well, too. I'm definitely giving points to "Dark was the Night" for the moody atmosphere and the integer acting performances, notably of Kevin Durand. Heck, I was even amused at how the script shamelessly makes use of all the most ancient and overused clichés in the book. The Sheriff is wrapped in self-pity and torn apart by guilt over the accidental death of his son, the amiable deputy returned from the big city with a trauma, 5th generation descendants mumbling about ancient Indian folklore legends, farm animals mysteriously vanish ... I mean, wow, who knew scriptwriters still dared to put that derivative stuff in horror films released after 2010? But then, there's the inevitable moment when you realize "Dark was the Night" keeps on building up and building up, yet nothing actually happens. Instead of putting so much effort in creating atmosphere, Heller and his crew ought to have focused more on action. Especially the exaggeratedly bleak blue colors quickly began to bother me. In order to make the forest, the town and its people look moodier and more depressed, a type of blue filter must have been placed over the camera lenses, or something. Everything looks blue in order to make you feel blue! Oh, and many reviewers around here keep raving about the fabulous end shot, but it's honestly nothing special (if you are familiar with cheap B-horror, that is)

Lord love a duck; how tedious can movies get? If you want a good answer, try "Dark Was the Night." Standard yarn about a sheriff, small town, logging company looses evil, and these-effects-aren't-very-special. Should have been shown in "WHINO-VISION." Never have I seen a movie that was so hair-pullingly bad. Sheriff has lost a son from an accident and falls into boredom and predictability. The big-bad monster in here...well, I've seen better at a local haunted house. Rated R for remorse. The only interesting characters in the movie were the trees. Don't waste your time.

Who edited this film? A blind person? I made it about five minutes in before I had to turn it off. The color grading was WAY too blue to the point of being obnoxious. I almost thought there was something screwed up with my TB's white balance but it wasn't. Idk what the editors were going for here but they should be fired immediately

I'm very critical of horror movies. Few impress me because I think blood, guts & torture are not scary, just gross. I can watch the news for those. Give me atmosphere & suspense. Dark Was the Night had good atmosphere & great cinematography. I liked the "washed out, almost colorless" look of the film. Kevin Durand was really good. His emotional portrayal was totally believable. He's a very underrated actor. I also liked Lukas Haas' character's & his loyalty to the sheriff. I have to agree with other reviewers that the ending was ...not on par with the rest of the film. This was sad because of the strong acting. I would definitely watch anything else with Kevin Durand, as he greatly impressed me.

Up until the closing scenes Dark Was the Night is reminiscent of any number of films by director M. Night Shyamalan. A strong sense of foreboding and tension is established early in this film. The source of the terror that infects a US country town is hinted at and glimpsed but never fully revealed, until the final scenes. As a result, Dark Was the Night could be described as somewhat slow by some but that was not what I took away from this story. Its well acted, with a solid sub plot and good character development, that moves the story forward. The ending is somewhat predictable, as is the final twist but that really doesn't detract greatly from what is a worth while watch. Seven out of ten from me.

Actually, for a creature-feature is wasn't that bad at all! There's a nice slow building-up of the tension and the makers were wise enough to let the creature for most of the movie stay out of full vision, this way we are spared the usually preposterous man-in-furry-suit wannabe Bigfoot. And in the last shot (that's really quite surprising and bloodchilling), they used convincing CGI. What lifts this movie further above the regular horror-flick is the strong acting of both sherrif (Kevin Durand) and deputy (Lukas Haas), helped by a good storyline for each of them, so that both characters gained some extra depth. It isn't really functional in such a movie, but provides a nice counter-balance to all the creature-turmoils.

Directed by a man from Kentucky, a monster/horror film and starring one of my personal favorite underrated actors (Kevin Durand) I was intrigued to check out Dark Was the Night despite the name. It sounds kinda cool but once thought about you half expect it to be directed by Captain Obvious. (Because no crap, it's dark at night) Bright Was The Day still brings the good stuff for at-least the first 2.5 acts. A nice, slow burn, mysterious story about a Father (Durand) with a painful past trying to prove to himself he's capable of keeping his family safe. Then something screwed up comes to town and gives him the chance to x 5000. The tension builds in an already paranoid small town when animals start to go missing and freaky hoof prints are found all over the place (No really, but they pull it off nicely). Things feel less dumb horror movie and more J.J. Abrams style Monster Mystery at this point as we slowly unravel the menace along with Sheriff Shields (Durand). Director Jack Heller does a great job of using atmosphere & slowly delving out creepy hints rather than throwing out empty jump scares. Also working for him is Durand who overcomes a done-a-thousand-times back story and manages to deliver his heartache & intention with sincerity. Plus the dude just looks and acts like a leading man. He's a kick-butt Schwarzenegger type believable hero who can also act. He's usually the best part of everything he's in & it's nice to see him get to keep the cameras attention throughout. Remember those few episodes of Lost when we didn't know the monster was just a stupid cloud of black smoke? They do almost as good of a job hiding their perpetrator here, just showing us enough to keep us scared. Maybe they knew that once we saw the evil full form, we would lose interest. Just as things are reaching peak intensity and they create a killer moment for us to chew on everything goes flat. Mainly the special effects kill all the momentum and end our hopes of scary time goodness. The tension is literally sucked out of the film in a single ugly moment. The shock and horror instead comes from just how bad the special effects look and I think the film makers knew it because they go for a really stupid final horror moment that undermines its best character arc and renders it useless. But damn, they started off really nicely. 6.5/10 Dark Was the Night is watchable because of the well crafted pacing by Jack Heller & Kevin Durand. Damn that final act though. This is a film worthy of a re-make with a better budget for better special effects and Cinematography. As long as they could keep the same players! Just give them the money to make this look the way it should.