I try my best to avoid major spoilers when I do a review, however this time I feel the need to talk about the movie Dark Light in detail. Consider this a warning.
Netflix’s Dark Light, from writer-director Padraig Reynolds, follows a newly divorced woman who moves back into her childhood home with her young daughter. It doesn’t take long before she begins to experience strange events such as lights in the cornfield and her daughter disappearing on several occasions, only to be found in strange places.
When I came across the movie I found the trailer both intriguing and well done, so I decided to give it a shot.
The story its self held a lot of potential, unfortunately, it’s got more plot holes than Michael Myers has victims.
The casting of the lead actress, Jessica Madsen, is a double-edged sword. Don’t get me wrong, she is fantastic in her role as a terrified mother. The problem is that the other cast are lackluster which was magnified by Madsen’s performance. Aside from Madsen’s Annie, every character is stiff, boring, and unlikable. Frankly, there was a lot of bad acting in this flick. Whether that’s due to the actors or the writing or directing, I don’t know.
The movie gets off to a decent start, that is until we see the film’s monsters which don’t really fit the story. They looked decent but just seem out of place. While there’s a distinct paranormal feel to Dark Light, the monsters look more like aliens than something that could be found on earth. They are huge, slobbering cyclopses with giant teeth and a huge light on their head and have telekinetic abilities. They drain the energy out of children and are described in the movie as a race of humanoid creatures that have hidden themselves from man. But they have no issue showing themselves. It’s a bit of a contradiction.
The cinematography is one of the things that drew me to watch Dark Light to begin with. It looks great and there are several really interesting shots, but it takes more than that to make a movie great or even a good one.
I expected more from Reynolds, who is also the director of Itsy Bitsy, which I scored as a 5 out 5 in my review this past September.
Dark Light is a bit of mess but had so much potential. It makes me sad to score it. In the end, it’s just disappointing. That’s why I’m scoring it as a 2 out of 5. But judge it for yourself, you can watch Dark Light now on Netflix.
