tatra-man Review of In a Dark Place

In a Dark Place (2006)

Not your conventional ghost story - an interesting update of the Henry James

[8/10 · 31 October 2006]

This film sticks quite close the original "Turn of the Screw" tale, but is set in the present day, and makes the sexual themes of the Henry James story much more overt. It has good cinematography, and it's snowy location creates quite an atmosphere. You never know quite where it is going, which is good, but you also feel there is something very wrong with Leelee Sobieski's character - something you can't really put your finger on - it's revealed as the film progresses. The way she turns from victim to savior to abuser is really intriguing and by the end really quite disturbing.... The film has many of the conventions of the standard ghost story, but there is something more interesting going on under the surface. A different type of scariness...