Writer: Paul Soter
I'd like to begin this review by saying "I'm not easily scared, but...", however, that would be a blatant lie. I'm very easily scared. Give me one Japanese long-haired ghost, and I'm already throwing a blanket over my head. So, the fact that I find this one of the scariest movies in recent years doesn't say much. However, scary or not, I think it's a very well made movie that's worth checking out, particularly (damn, what a difficult word for a non-English speaker!) for the performances of the two leads.
The movie starts with some cheerful music to which a young woman is enjoying the company of her newborn baby. This idyllic scene is quickly interrupted by a loud knock on the door. When the woman opens it, she finds a really scary bitch that's apparently injured (but we know better, right?) because there's this huge red spot on her belly. The young woman (the other woman is also young, but we will differentiate between the two by calling her a scary bitch) takes her in and proceeds to call help, but makes a mistake of leaving her baby unattended. Next thing you know, the scary bitch shows her true intentions and it isn't pretty.
Virtually plotless, the movie's sole intention seems to be to scare the viewer by having the scary bitch pop out of nowhere in almost every scene and do whatever the scary bitches usually do. In that regard, Dark Circles isn't unlike Shutter (of course, I'm referring to the Thai original and not that stupid American remake), but it's less scary and much more ambiguous. Who is that woman? Is she a ghost? A figment of their imagination? Does she come with the house? Is she perhaps real? I don't think this ambiguity was Soter's conscious intention. It just came as a natural consequence of the decision to put the scary bitch in just about every bloody possible scene, without a slightest regard of its context. One of the main characters is dreaming - what is (s)he dreaming about? Why, the scary bitch, of course! The husband is looking at some pictures and who's that on every single picture? You guessed it, the scary bitch! The wife looks through the window and lo and behold, it's the scary bitch standing by the tree in the garden! The wife looks in the mirror and take a wild guess who passes in the background! The scary bitch!
So, if scary bitches scare you, you'll probably find this scary, if not, you'll either stop watching after 15 minutes, or you'll try to ignore the nuisances and concentrate of what (I guess) is supposed to be the main theme of the movie, the relationship between the lead characters (a young couple with a baby), their personal problems, the way they deal with the parenthood, etc. This drama part is generally well written and is greatly enhanced by very good performances by Jonathon Schaech (damn, what a difficult last name for a non-English speaker!) and Pell James. They make their characters believable and even likable, in spite of their almost constant arguing.
I said "generally" in the last paragraph because everything isn't perfect. The young parents display a surprising lack of communication which can't just be explained by their, you know, lack of communication. The problem is the necessity to keep the story going to full length, and if they had a real conversation, the movie would be over in 15 minutes.
"You know what, darling? I keep seeing this scary bitch everywhere."
"You too? ZOMG, and I thought I was going crazy!"
"You're telling me! Now let's get the *censored* out of this house!"
This doesn't happen until nearly the end of the movie.
I haven't really talked about the plot, but you have probably gathered that there's this young couple with a baby, whose relationship is plagued by the scary bitch. There's also a lack of sleep, but that's also caused by the scary bitch. The scary bitch was probably supposed to be a means of support for the general character drama, but as I said before, Soter couldn't resist, so she got so much screen presence that she practically became the lead character herself, pushing the drama to the background. There are many scary scenes, which are mostly based on the well established patterns ("But honey, if I you are in another room, then who the bloody hell is this woman who lies in our bed???????"). There are also many completely unnecessary jump scares. However, that's all just the writing problem. The direction is spot-on, both in drama and horror parts. Soter has obviously seen his share of classics and he did a good job on emulating them and with his obvious talent I'm sure he'll soon find his original expression, which will make his subsequent movies kick ass.
By the way, this is Paul Soter from... Broken Lizard!?!?!?!
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