Dark Film Review: A Dark Song
Review by Casey Douglass
I wrote a news piece
about A Dark Song a few years ago, and then promptly forgot
all about it. I remembered that it sounded intriguing though, so when
I was flicking through the TV guide and saw that it was showing on
Film Four, the penny dropped and I might well have gone “Ooooh!”
into the bargain. Well, I watched it this afternoon and I’m very
pleased that I did. It’s a cracking horror film, in most of the
ways that I enjoy.
Sophia (Catherine
Walker) begins the film by renting a massive house. She then meets up with Joseph
Solomon (Steve Oram), an occultist that she wants to employ to
help her perform a special ritual, one that will give her something
that she wants, and she is willing to pay tens of thousands of pounds
for the privilege. She isn’t totally honest with the blunt man, but
after securing his services, the slow build of the film begins.
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The other element that
makes the quieter half of the film interesting is the interaction
between Sophia
and Joseph, from his grim, sweary manner and humour,
to her generally annoying attitude and paranoia. The film made me
chuckle out loud in a number of places, usually with Joseph being
very blunt, or making semi-frequent use of the C word. Two people
stuck in a house together for months on end; the grinding on each
other's nerves is a fascinating thing to witness. The house itself is
practically another character, the large rooms and creaking wood
floors framing the exchanges between the two occupants in a kind of
shabby gothic lens.
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The ending, when it
came, felt suitably strange, but also a little disappointing. It
wasn’t so much the manner of what happens, but the route Sophia
decides to take after. I just didn’t buy it, to go through all
that she did, to choose the outcome that she opted for. It felt twee
if I’m honest, and I don’t really like twee. I also didn’t feel
I’d seen enough changes in her throughout the film to warrant such
a direction. It felt like watching someone embark on an epic
journey, only to turn back for home inches from the destination,
having decided that actually, they would rather be at home. As with
most things though, it’s probably a matter of expectation and
taste, and I won’t let my disappointment with the ending mar what I
thought was a fantastic film.
A
Dark Song, taken as a whole, really impressed me. I liked the
spiky characters, the occult mystique and the attempt to portray the
drudgery that grand magick would entail. The supernatural elements
escalate nicely, the slow simmering at the start coming to the boil
in a pleasing way at just about the right time. I wasn’t scared
during this horror, I don’t remember when a horror last made me
feel afraid. I was more a tourist of uneasiness, able to vicariously
enjoy the tensions of the characters that the film portrays, and I
will take that over cheap jumpscares any day. If you’ve not seen A
Dark Song, it’s one to keep an eye open for.
Film Title: A
Dark Song
Released: 2017
Starring: Steve
Oram, Catherine Walker
Directed and Written
by: Liam Gavin
Distributed by:
Kaleidoscope Film Distribution