Darling

source: Darling

Be careful reading the reviews on this one, I watched this with the advantage of having never seen 'repulsion' and it must be said I seldom if ever watch a movie in black and white especially if modern. Having said that I'm an avid Horror fan and taken at face value the movie delivers quite well. It is slow, (ie: at times bludgeoningly so) but is very atmospheric. The wife and I both watched it all the way thru which says much as we often will gong movies before the halfway point (mutually. Desperately striving to match movies of a bygone era it does not always fall short, a good watch, probably more-so alone at night and during a distant storm... There is an additional scene midway thru end credits don't forget to stay that long if you make it to the end.

One of Keating's and Lauren Ashley Carter's BEST! Atmospheric, mysterious, and frightening. I love this movie and STILL want to know what's behind the door at the end of the hall!!

Admirable attempt at stylized macabre that doesn't go anywhere. There is an atmospheric approach to the imposing, lonely city but the plot is that unfortunate combination of too subtle and hysterical.

I liked this movie and I think others will also. This reminded me of Polanski's repulsion. A black and white art house flick with a twilight zone feel to it. This blurs the line between mental deterioration nightmare's and reality. Lauren Ashely Carter was top notch maintaining an innocent look even when she's doing something wrong. This film takes me back to a different time. It also sends off a different feel to it. You get a little Hitchcock mixed with a lot of Polanski. I wonder if they used the infamous Hershey Syrup as blood? If anyone knows please let me know, being black and white one cannot tell. Mickey Keating might be going places. This is a good way to spend 78min. You won't regret it!

This movie is a psychological thriller and a great one. The story and setting are simple which makes it even more interesting as well as the black and white film. The trouble with 'Darling' becomes apparent later in the movie. The acting is fantastic! Darlings descent into madness is beautifully drawn out through her isolation and only periodic phone calls from her employer. Whether her madness was brought on by the possible demonic activity in the house or her own past mental inability is unclear but it only adds to the mystery. There is also the possibility that the man she encounters meerly resembles that of a man from her past that she feels necessary to take out revenge on for what he did to her in the past.

Darling follows a woman as she moves into a new house where she slowly, and violently, goes insane. I watched this movie on Hallowe'en night, unsure exactly what I was getting into. I'd been curious about it, but never did I expect this. Let's start with the performances. They're good. The supporting cast is fine, but nothing to write home about. The shining star in all this is the leading actress, Lauren Ashley Carter. Right from her opening scene she was fantastic. The way she delivers dialogue in particular was great, and although she didn't talk much, watching her perform was a treat. The story itself is subtle and engaging. There's a level of mystery that surrounds the entire atmosphere of the film. Not only that, but the character of Darling herself is very interesting. As the movie progresses you as the audience begins to realize that this isn't the beginning of this woman's struggles, but rather a continuation. It's clear that Darling has had a troubled past, and the series of new events unfolding before her in her new home set her mind off in the direction it seemed to have been heading already. Not only that, but Darling acts similarly to a real person in her situation. She begins to fear herself and what she's becomes, and expresses that in scenes that are both very powerful and a little on the hard side to watch. Now, let's get into the most effective aspect of the film: the horror. This is an unnerving and genuinely frightening movie, and I don't say that often. I've been unsettled by a few horror films, but Darling takes the cake for being actually scary. The movie briefly shows images and scenes that are assumed to be Darling's thoughts, and while some people would call this a cheap horror gimmick, I say otherwise. The imagery shown is often somewhat unnerving and vague, and only processing each image for a short second just adds to that. No, they aren't jump scares, there isn't a loud sound to go along with each one, nor are they all that sudden. They become a regular occurrence, but the director Mickey Keating knows exactly when to use each one. Furthermore, there are a handful of scenes that are just plain hard to watch, made all the more effective by the character we have now come to care for. It's a movie you have to see for yourself, but trust me, there are some genuinely unnerving scenes, one in particular involving a bathtub. Overall Darling is not only horrifying but also well-acted and well- written, with an interesting story and great characters. In the end I'd definitely recommend this movie.

This film was just too pretentious for me to really get into in any meaningful way. I felt like it was trying way too hard to be some kind of quirky, black and white art-house movie and wound up putting more effort into this contrived style rather than making a movie with any substance. Director Mickey Keating — who also directed Pod, which I reviewed recently, which has literally all the same main characters minus Sean Young, as well as the same music composer AND same cinematographer — definitely knew what kind of mood he was aiming for, but he forgot to put any deep thought into things like dialogue or getting a strong performance out of his characters. I'm not entirely surprised, since Pod had the same issues for me — a good shell of a movie but no substantial filling. "Darling" (she is given no other name), played by Lauren Ashley Carter, is a mysterious young girl who is tasked with watching an old, beautiful apartment in the heart of New York City while its wealthy residents are away. She is warned that a previous caretaker threw herself off the balcony, and there is talk of the apartment itself being haunted. Throughout the short time that she is house sitting we watch her descent into madness before her tragic end. ** SPOILERS! ** I guess my biggest issue with this movie is, as I mentioned, the fact that Keating's focus on style and mood seemed to trump his effort to build a meaningful character with Darling. He had this great opportunity to delve into the topics of gentrification, urban isolation, the trauma of possible sexual assault, and mental illness, to name a few, but he seemed to prefer to simply have a pretty girl stare blankly into the camera. We really never get to know much about her aside from studying every facet of her face since she probably stares into the camera for half the damn movie runtime. I had high hopes when the movie opened up with some impressively stark shots of the city — it's a rare treat when a movie seamlessly blends genuine terror and character development with an abundance of aesthetic beauty — but alas, all I got were some cool upside down shots of skyscrapers and enough shock cuts to make me never want to see another one again in my entire life. All of the mentions of a paranormal side of things — the apartment being haunted, the previous caretaker committing suicide, the mention by her date that a conjuring of the devil was once attempted in the building — are all sadly glossed over, despite the fact that they could have been interesting additions to the plot if they were explored a bit more. It does what many other greats before it have done — blurring the line and making us wonder what is truly paranormal and what is a product of spiraling into madness — but it just doesn't do it nearly as well. The murder of her date was unexpected, and somewhat shocking to witness — him gasping awake unexpectedly and the subsequent suffocation with the plastic bag were particularly hard to watch. But ultimately, like most aspects of the movie — I mean, come on, it's broken into chapters for some inexplicable reason — I felt like it was trying a bit too hard. Then the ending just gets plain cheesy, with her talking to Madame on the phone, hinting again at her past trauma, and saying "I think I'll become one of your ghost stories now" *eye roll*. Overall, YAWN. Pretty to look at? Sure. But I would have preferred it spend more time making me think — or, hell, scaring me — than repeatedly juxtaposing her blank expression with a strobed shot of her screaming face.

Firstly, I would not class this movie as horror, more a Psycho Thriller. The fact that it takes place in an allegedly haunted house, (which is set out for us very clearly by the home owner right at the beginning of the movie, and we are then reminded of this half way through by another character, in case we have forgotten.) seems incidental. My "Pretension Alarm" started ringing straight away, and there were several reasons. 1) Filmed in black and white. Not necessarily a bad thing, look at Carnival of Souls among others. Here it just serves to amplify the dullness of the story. 2) Separated into "Chapters". As there is no real change in the story, or jumping to a different location, or even a change of scene sometimes, this seems superfluous. Perhaps they are trying to fool us into thinking we are watching something intelligent by reminding us of books. 3)Throughout several scenes there is French music playing in the background, á la Edith Piaf. Although the location is never detailed, apart from a brief glimpse at a characters driving licence, it looks like 1960's New York. So why French music? It does nothing but detract from what little action is going on. 4)Constant (and I mean A LOT) of cut away shots of the girl staring into the camera from varying distances, with various expressions (Although not that varied) inter-cut with flashes of screaming faces, while discordant music screeches in the background. 5)Very little dialogue. A lot of the time is taken with the girl alone in the house walking around, so the lack of dialogue is unsurprising, but most of what is included is painfully clumsy, so this is probably a plus. 6)The ending is predictable within the first 5 minutes of the movie. I could sum up the plot of this film in three sentences, and would probably have a sentence to spare, and still not be missing anything out. But no spoilers As you can tell, not a fan of this one, it tries so hard to be artful and avant-garde, but is just Pretentious Claptrap.

I did enjoy this movie but after watching and remembering the original that i truly loved ,i was looking in the credits but i could not find a mention of Roman Polansky's 1965 movie ''Repulsion'' with Catherine Deneuve of which this is obviously a remake, there are even a few french songs (one with Edith Piaf) in the sound track not to mention that is was shot in black and white (as was the original). I enjoy a revisit of great movies, it sometimes give a new twist to a good plot or treatment but do not pretend that this work is original! Intellectual integrity where are you? Just my 2 grains of salt