Greetings and salutations, and welcome to my review of 1976s Dark August.
Before I get into the film review, here are my ratings for the movie.
The story gets 1.5 out of 2: The Direction a 1.25: The Tempo and Flow receive a 1: While the Acting gets 1.25: And my Enjoyment level earns a 1.25 out of 2: Dark August, therefore, receives a total of 6.25 out of 10.
The particular thing I admire about this film is the story. Even though it's primarily a revenge flick, the writers JJ and Carolyne Barry, and Martin Goldman, go the extra mile. The central plot is about a girl killed in a road accident, and her grandfathers quest for revenge. However, good old grandpops doesn't grab his rifle and hunt the man down. No. He lights a black candle and recites an incantation to bring forth an ancient evil to kill the driver. It's here and in additional incantation scenes that the Barry's and Goldman add the extra touch. Believable dialogue for spell-casting. The spells are no lame-ass Hogwarts Latin one-word crap. There are feelings and power in these words. For me, Dark August includes the most genuine spell-casting phraseology put on film.
On the whole, the writers provide the audience with a good storyline and believable and relatable characters. Though, it does suffer from slowness at times. These pausing periods, which aren't too terrible, could have been used to continue to build the characters and story.
Goldman also directed this little treasure of a horror film. He possesses a fine eye for iconic compositional shots. In the opening sequence, he gives the audience a pan of the landscape, and it's magnificent. The sun is setting over mountains on the horizon. Goldman captures a light-leak from the setting sun to the left edge of the screen. As he pans, the light-leak moves correspondingly. The entire scene gave me a pleasant and euphoric feeling. It's delightful when a director plans every shot of the film. There's a particularly eerie shot of a mysterious robed figure as he stands between the trunks of two trees. The image is centre-screen and framed by the forest. Add to this the quirky and discordant music, and Goldman injects a cold chill into you.
I found it a bonus and a plus to my enjoyment that Goldman uses local people in his shots. The townsfolk are most evident in Sal's first mental attack. At the time, he's in the local store. In the background, the people are shopping. And they don't appear to be acting shopping. I particularly enjoyed the two kids messing about. The realisticness of this scene was great.
The only place that Goldman staggers is with the pacing of the storytelling. The slow pace works, for the most part. However, some segments needed a tad more speed. Surprisingly, this is most evident in the second incantation sequence. It's too long. Though I know it needs to be creepy, the scene is exceedingly slow and creates a dragged out feel. Nevertheless, it's eloquently written.
The cast is on their top form also. And, co-writers JJ Barry and Carolyne Barry do surprisingly well in the lead roles. They work splendidly as a couple; their real-life relationship possibly helped to make their scenes more realistic
I completely believed in the evil grandpoppa. William Robertson perfectly executes the evil stare. There's no way I would've messed with him. I'd have packed up and turned tail and ran. Shame his speaking sections don't possess the equivalent power. Luckily for both the film and the audience, the grandfather represents the quiet and brooding type. I'm not too convinced he even voiced the opening incantation as this voice oozes ominousness.
The only gripe with the performances was that of Kim Hunter's. She delivers a quality performance as the witch. Nonetheless, when she starts the end enchantment, she comes across a little flat. Her monotony could be another reason why the scene appeared slow. It's a shame as this is part of the story's conclusion and was required to hold the audience's attention.
Dark August is an odd title and doesn't do the film justice. I say this because there's no mention of the month, and it's not dark. Well, not that dark. There are hints of suicidal thoughts, though these are only slight. More depth to Sal's grief would have been better. After all, he was the cause of the granddaughter's death. You know he's troubled, but I couldn't help feeling that I wanted more.
That said, this is an enjoyable movie if you like slow creepy flicks. There's no gross-out gore. Even though we witness one of the men saw into his leg, we never see the girl get run over, even though we see the scene a few times. The accident happens off-screen.
I would recommend Dark August for every Horror fan, except the gore-hounds. It's rightly worth one sitting, though I will be going back to it in the future. I wouldn't recommend it for newbies either. The slowness may put you off watching other horror flicks, and that would be a shame because there are so many excellent ones out there. No, this one is for the seasoned fans.
Once you've escaped the evil granddad, make your way through the forest and check out my Absolute Horror list to see where this revenge flick ranked in my charts.
Take Care & Stay Well. Get Inoculated.
Before I get into the film review, here are my ratings for the movie.
The story gets 1.5 out of 2: The Direction a 1.25: The Tempo and Flow receive a 1: While the Acting gets 1.25: And my Enjoyment level earns a 1.25 out of 2: Dark August, therefore, receives a total of 6.25 out of 10.
The particular thing I admire about this film is the story. Even though it's primarily a revenge flick, the writers JJ and Carolyne Barry, and Martin Goldman, go the extra mile. The central plot is about a girl killed in a road accident, and her grandfathers quest for revenge. However, good old grandpops doesn't grab his rifle and hunt the man down. No. He lights a black candle and recites an incantation to bring forth an ancient evil to kill the driver. It's here and in additional incantation scenes that the Barry's and Goldman add the extra touch. Believable dialogue for spell-casting. The spells are no lame-ass Hogwarts Latin one-word crap. There are feelings and power in these words. For me, Dark August includes the most genuine spell-casting phraseology put on film.
On the whole, the writers provide the audience with a good storyline and believable and relatable characters. Though, it does suffer from slowness at times. These pausing periods, which aren't too terrible, could have been used to continue to build the characters and story.
Goldman also directed this little treasure of a horror film. He possesses a fine eye for iconic compositional shots. In the opening sequence, he gives the audience a pan of the landscape, and it's magnificent. The sun is setting over mountains on the horizon. Goldman captures a light-leak from the setting sun to the left edge of the screen. As he pans, the light-leak moves correspondingly. The entire scene gave me a pleasant and euphoric feeling. It's delightful when a director plans every shot of the film. There's a particularly eerie shot of a mysterious robed figure as he stands between the trunks of two trees. The image is centre-screen and framed by the forest. Add to this the quirky and discordant music, and Goldman injects a cold chill into you.
I found it a bonus and a plus to my enjoyment that Goldman uses local people in his shots. The townsfolk are most evident in Sal's first mental attack. At the time, he's in the local store. In the background, the people are shopping. And they don't appear to be acting shopping. I particularly enjoyed the two kids messing about. The realisticness of this scene was great.
The only place that Goldman staggers is with the pacing of the storytelling. The slow pace works, for the most part. However, some segments needed a tad more speed. Surprisingly, this is most evident in the second incantation sequence. It's too long. Though I know it needs to be creepy, the scene is exceedingly slow and creates a dragged out feel. Nevertheless, it's eloquently written.
The cast is on their top form also. And, co-writers JJ Barry and Carolyne Barry do surprisingly well in the lead roles. They work splendidly as a couple; their real-life relationship possibly helped to make their scenes more realistic
I completely believed in the evil grandpoppa. William Robertson perfectly executes the evil stare. There's no way I would've messed with him. I'd have packed up and turned tail and ran. Shame his speaking sections don't possess the equivalent power. Luckily for both the film and the audience, the grandfather represents the quiet and brooding type. I'm not too convinced he even voiced the opening incantation as this voice oozes ominousness.
The only gripe with the performances was that of Kim Hunter's. She delivers a quality performance as the witch. Nonetheless, when she starts the end enchantment, she comes across a little flat. Her monotony could be another reason why the scene appeared slow. It's a shame as this is part of the story's conclusion and was required to hold the audience's attention.
Dark August is an odd title and doesn't do the film justice. I say this because there's no mention of the month, and it's not dark. Well, not that dark. There are hints of suicidal thoughts, though these are only slight. More depth to Sal's grief would have been better. After all, he was the cause of the granddaughter's death. You know he's troubled, but I couldn't help feeling that I wanted more.
That said, this is an enjoyable movie if you like slow creepy flicks. There's no gross-out gore. Even though we witness one of the men saw into his leg, we never see the girl get run over, even though we see the scene a few times. The accident happens off-screen.
I would recommend Dark August for every Horror fan, except the gore-hounds. It's rightly worth one sitting, though I will be going back to it in the future. I wouldn't recommend it for newbies either. The slowness may put you off watching other horror flicks, and that would be a shame because there are so many excellent ones out there. No, this one is for the seasoned fans.
Once you've escaped the evil granddad, make your way through the forest and check out my Absolute Horror list to see where this revenge flick ranked in my charts.
Take Care & Stay Well. Get Inoculated.