The Dark
Dark, The (2005)
★★ / ★★★★
Adelle (Maria Bello) and her daughter, Sarah (Sophie Stuckey), arrived in a Welsh farm owned by James (Sean Bean), her husband. While exploring the shore, Sarah noticed something glistening in the water. She carefully reached in and found a key. Then she noticed something more. The water reflected a dead girl’s face who, by dragging Sarah in the water, a portal between the land of the living and the dead, wished to return in the flesh. Adelle, busy with some artifacts she found in the sand, noticed a strange silence. Her daughter was nowhere to be found. Based on a novel by Simon Maginn and directed by John Fawcett, “The Dark” thrived on creepy details like sheep seemingly going insane and jumping off cliffs, several handfuls of keys but none of which could open the box in question, and the girl, Ebril (Abigail Stone), who appeared just when Sarah disappeared. I watched in complete interest and wondered how all of it would come together. Unfortunately, the film suffered from having too many ideas but not enough time to develop them. Adelle’s obsession in finding out what really happened to her daughter should have been more moving. I expected more investigative skills from the desperate mother. I didn’t expect her to rely so heavily on Welsh mythology she heard from others to find her own answers. She was supposed to be a practical woman from New York. Readily believing whatever she was told seemed somewhat dishonest to her character. The ultimate test whether our protagonist had done enough to get her daughter back was the scene in which Adelle tried to persuade Ebril to jump off a cliff so Sarah could return. I found it difficult not to laugh at what I was seeing. How could I believe that the girl was seriously considering to jump if she waited almost sixty years to return from the dead? It just didn’t make sense. Perhaps if more scenes were added that specifically showed her inner conflict in terms of being out of place in the modern world, I would have been more convinced. Lastly, James’ handyman friend, Dafydd (Maurice Roëves), should have shared more scenes with Adelle. He was a critical link between the past and present. He knew the grim details of the mass suicide that the priest, who used to occupy the farmhouse, incited. “The Dark” had a beautiful setting. The way the beach and the cliffs that surrounded it was shot, it looked like a perfect place for something bad to happen. Although I appreciated the risks that the screenplay had taken, there wasn’t a big payoff. Many were impressed with its supposedly surprise ending. There was nothing surprising about it. In fact, I expected and wanted it to happen so that the material would remain true to the rules it constructed for itself. On that level, I was mildly satisfied.
