From the Dark (2014)

One of my all time favorites.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Its hard to believe a film with only two characters could be THIS captivating! The acting was so realistic that I could actually feel what they were going through, especially Niamh Algar. This little Irish film was a huge surprise! There was a constant foreboding atmosphere and the monster was really creepy and scary. We don't learn anything about the monster and can only assume it is a vampire due to the 'symptoms'. The lack of 'jump scare music' made the film that much scarier. At times there were no music at all and only slight movement in the background. That freaked me out! It was brilliantly done, and nerve wrecking at times. The film is Jeepers Creepers-ish, only much better. Sarah (Niamh) is a very strong, likable character; a real fighter. Literally the last mili-second of the film makes you wonder what is going to happen next. 'From the Dark' is an instant classic!

Sarah (played by Niamh Algar) and Mark (played by Stephen Cromwell) are on a trip through the Irish countryside when their car gets stuck in some mud. In an attempt to locate some nearby help, Mark stumbles upon a man who is in desperate need of some help and thus seals their fate as prey to a nocturnal beast.It is, of course, not the most original of stories, but it didn't need much. I found the main characters to be pretty instantly likable, though there wasn't much done to develop a real bond between them — there's actually some tension introduced as Mark lists the reasons why he would probably never get married (which Sarah is obviously yearning for). But, again, I don't think their romantic connection was crucial to this story, which was more focused on bare bones suspense and mystery.We know from the first scene that this is obviously some kind of vampiric creature — the old farmer removes the stake after he stumbles upon the body while digging, and it avoids light at all costs — and man, I really felt like they nailed the creepiness of it. It stays in the shadows for a majority of the movie. We see a few glimpses here and there (and even in the light it's pretty awesome looking), but the real fear comes from its otherworldly skulking in the dark, drawing some obvious inspiration from Nosferatu. It is clearly a powerful, quick creature and yet it spends much of its time gliding around as if its feet don't even touch the ground. There's a few scenes in particular — its hand reaching for Sarah in the glow of her lighting a cigarette, the scene pictured above when it is seen fully in shadow out one of the windows of the house, seeing its shadowy figure on the bank after Mark falls in the water — that deliver some deep chills.Unfortunately the director, Conor McMahon, seemed to be stuck on the quiet, understated scares — there were a few moments that I felt should have delivered much more impact and surprise (the very first moments of the vampire breaking into the house, Mark shattering the lights on the tractor, Sarah ultimately sacrificing Mark for her own safety) that just fell flat.I did appreciate the strong female lead in Sarah. She carries a majority of the film and she's tenacious and bold.I felt like it plateaued for a while there in the middle — we got stuck in this repetitive cycle of "find light, scare off vampire, repeat" — but we're brought back in to the action right around the time when Sarah is forced to chop off her own finger after getting a nasty bite. But the ending, man… both the surprise and then the bit of mystery in the last second are really fantastic. An understated and yet truly creepy and intelligent film.

Well, acted, taut and thoughtful, this Irish-made Nu-Horror piece has the makings of a ground-breaking entry into a tired and cynical field.The plot is largely told without dialogue which is a technique that should be used a lot more. The story revolves quite simply around a young Irish couple stranded and isolated as they are hunted by something hungry that rose from the peat bogs. Horror and pop-culture fans will recognize the antagonist instantly when seen in profile though in a Q&A, the director said he was only using portions of that trope despite the mimeographed physical resemblance.Both of the main actors give instinctual and layered performances particularly given the lack of substantive dialogue. This makes perfect sense as when one is running and hiding in fear for one's life, conversation might not be foremost on your mind. Grunts, groans screams and moans are used as often as words to convey their situation though I must admit it would have been more natural for one of them to freak out at the whole illogical and unnatural nature of their predicament. Think Blair Witch Project's many uses of hysterics in the face of an unseen, unknowable foe.Niamh Alger's turn as the can-do girl fighting for her and her boyfriend's life is a nice break from the standard male protagonist role, though in Horror, beautiful women DO seem to fare better than average in the post-Millennial world, still Algar's Sarah is a convincing and tenacious hero without the need to show us Sigourney Weaver levels of unstopability.Gore and cheap starts are not an issue here, though one of the characters does make a decision to hurt themselves for reasons which will be apparent once seen and while the idea is sound and shows the character to be quick-witted and tough, the special fx produced a pay off that was slightly Fangoria c.1975.The antagonist IS suitably mysterious and vague, avoiding the pitfall of the horror exposed to the light in all its tangible goriness and thus reduced to just another Saturday Matinée beastie.The movie does suffer from pacing problems as that much time without dialogue SHOULD give you some motion to the story rather than extended breaks of the characters catching their breath or tending to cuts, leaves one feeling the the director's choice to allow the scenes to breathe organically is less patience and more self-indulgent.Despite this, the film's great disappointment lies in its use of the camera. This is not like the aforementioned Blair Witch, wherein one gets Cops-style shaky cam on-the-run. Rather it seems to be quite infatuated by its own cleverness in creating claustrophobia even when outdoors or in large spaces, the camera is placed so close to the characters as to prevent you from seeing both sides of their face in some cases. The devotion to this sense of confusion and displacement carries through to wide-angle scenes where in many cases objects are left to intervene between viewer and subject. While the goal is clearly to leave the viewer unbalanced, the result is simply to leave one blinking and confused. Intended to be a mood-setter, the final product is instead the antithesis of film; it makes what you've seen LESS understandable and completely unrelatable. Add in the constant darkness from the title and your final product is more film strip than cinema. At no point was this author ever able to place himself into the scene and become a subject of the director's world, instead remaining in constant analysis mode which is just not that enjoyable and ultimately undoes all of the director's technique.Watching this movie is akin to buying a car with a bad transmission. All those wonderful parts that do work are completely over-matched by the nagging and constant problem that rides shotgun on every trip.

This isn't a bad movie. The acting is great, the film looks big budget, which is always nice. I'm a scared cat and would I say this movie was scary? Not too much. But it did have some good scares and it isn't a complete waste of your time. If you like vampires this is a vampire movie. I think this movie could have been one of the greats in the genre if they had added some dialogue and built up the suspended that way. It's all action, not psychological and I like to both. It was still intriguing and could have been amazing like I said if they had put a story line in there with some back ground and built it up like I said. Like knowing what exactly it was or who it was chasing them and what happened to the farmer would have been nice.. It depends . Lots of people don't like to think to much about their horror and this will def appeal to that crowd. With good actors it's hard to make a terrible movie. I loved parts of Ishtar for instance. This movie has great actors and it saved it from being a not good movie. Overall I say this is def worth a watch on Netflix. I just got done watching "Deep in the Darkness". That movie had great reviews and I thought it was awful. The acting was terrible. And I just thought it was a disaster. So maybe I'm biased , I don't know. This one is very much a stretch above that monstrosity.