The Dark and the Wicked (2020)

Director: Bryan Bertino
Writer(s): Bertino
Starring: Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr., Julie Oliver-Touchstone and Lynn Andrews

The Dark and the Wicked, at its core, is a somewhat familiar tale of a family who live in an isolated farmhouse. Such stories are becoming more and more commonplace with the recent success of films like The Witch, and this one feels like it was inspired by Robert Eggers' popular horror film: aside from the location, the film's droning score and constant sense of dread feel very similar. However, whereas The Witch is a notorious exercise in slow-burn horror that certainly isn't for everybody, The Dark and the Wicked - once it gets going - is an almost unrelenting attempt to terrify and shock its audience. 

This film centers around two siblings who are summoned to their parents’ house to care for their dying father. One would think their mother would be happy to see them, but she constantly appears nervous and on edge; like someone - or something - is always on her mind. So anxiety-ridden is she that she constantly warns them to leave, and tells them that they shouldn't have come. It doesn't take long for them to see why: Almost immediately strange things begin happening, and as we can tell from the frequent shots of the prone father lying in bed, chances are good he somehow has something to do with it. 

The relatives brush it off at first, but they can only brush it off for so long. It starts off as merely creepy happenings - chairs moving around, lights turning on, and far-off sounds in the distance; things that can be nervously laughed away. But eventually, the innocent happenings take a turn for the sinister, and the siblings realize they should have heeded their mother's warnings. Is all of this linked to the dying man lying in the bedroom? Or are the dark forces that are lingering around after someone else entirely? 

There aren't really many twists to the basic storyline, but the story isn't really the film's focus. Much like the plotlines for slapstick comedies are just a way to throw in as many jokes as possible, or the setups for porn are just excuses to have people copulate in a variety of interesting ways, the sole reason for The Dark and the Wicked's threadbare plot is to disarm the viewer with an almost unrelenting series of inexplainable phenomenon: Once the scares start - and they start fairly early on - they rarely let up. 

Part of its effectiveness is that it doesn't rely much on jumpscares, which is a welcome change from the norm. However, the sheer effort it undergoes to petrify its audience actually works to its disadvantage at times. While that might not sound like a legitimate issue - this is a horror film, after all, and horrifying the audience is the name of the game - the attempts come so often that we almost become desensitized to them. Don’t get me wrong, the experience as a whole is frightening, but it becomes slightly predictable within its own universe as it wears on. Furthermore, some of the scare sequences just feel like lazy writing: In what could probably be considered a minor spoiler (so don't read it if you don't want to know anything about it...and you shouldn't), hallucinations make up a good portion of the terror sequences in the second half, and it kind of feels like a copout at times. The scenes are really well done - and a couple are beyond effective - but it's also further proof that the story really doesn't mean anything.

That being said, there’s an atmosphere of dread that permeates virtually every scene, and the film does a great job of pulling you into its world; it's the kind of film where your heart sinks every time the sun goes down, because you know something terrifying is going to happen. I haven't felt that feeling since I saw the original Paranormal Activity over a decade ago (during its limited release and before it blew up and went viral).

Surprisingly, at least to me, this was written and directed by Brian Bertino, the man responsible for The Strangers. Outside of one or two scenes in that one, I wasn't very impressed with the end result. Here, he proves he has the capability to maintain a sense of dread throughout the entire runtime. Even during the sequences where you know something is coming, he still manages to make the payoffs work more often than not.

If you're a fan of horror, this is almost required viewing. It builds up - and more crucially, maintains - the dread of a "slow burn" tale, while throwing one malevolent scene right after another at the audience. It doesn't always work, but it works well enough that, chances are, there will be at least one scene that sticks with you when the memory of the rest fades away.

RATING: 8.5/10