Dark Windows (2023) User Reviews

How not to make a thriller

[imran_sahir · 3/10 · 1 March 2024]

For people who have seen wrong turn, wolf creek, chainsaw massacre this move is like cartoons.

A bit more effort could have added alot of value and content.

Actors did a pretty decent job but there wasn't much beef in the script though.

It's a below average attempt.

Doesn't make you guess or jump to conclusions. A simple story to tell in 2 lines. They did something and faced the logical consequences in a simple plain manner no twists or turns.

ChatGPT For those familiar with films like "Wrong Turn," "Wolf Creek," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," this movie feels akin to watching cartoons. With a bit more effort, it could have provided greater depth and substance. While the actors performed adequately, the script lacked substantial substance. Overall, it's a below-average attempt at captivating its audience.

The plot fails to engage viewers in guessing or anticipating outcomes; instead, it offers a straightforward narrative easily summarized in two lines. The characters undertake a particular action and subsequently face its logical consequences in a simple, straightforward manner devoid of any twists or turns.

Summary of this rating: slow, good acting, low action. (See full review for specific details)

[colganlandon · 5/10 · 27 October 2023]

For anybody who gets bored easily from slow movies, do not watch this film.

CONS: There was about 10 minutes of terrorizing in this movie. 1h of this movie is just the main character being depressed, and people drinking and talking. But in those 10 minutes of terrorizing, I guess it was okay action wise, but I would have like a little more time, and action. The deaths were basic, and not bloody, and there wasn't any fighting except for a few punches. Half of those 10 minutes were spent of the main character tied to a chair. Would say that the violence is mild-moderate in this movie. This movie is also very predictable. The trailer really surprised me, and made me want to watch the movie because of how good the trailer looked, but the movie is way worse. About everything in those 10 minutes from in the movie we're in the trailer. (Usually in movies they don't put every intense scene into the trailers)

PROS: acting was amazing with the main character, I've never seen her before, and I was pleasantly surprised at her performance. I liked the characters development, and the plot of this movie was interesting, but it was a little predictable.

This movie could fit in the PG-13 rating if there wasn't the swearing. About 10 f words in this movie, and more words that I'm not counting lol

I would give this movie a good 5-5.5/10 because of the amazing acting, and the low action and slowness.

See through

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 25 April 2024]

No pun intended - this is a little horror movie. So I reckon if you suspend your disbelief and cut this some slack .. well you may find this interesting. Especially the spin or twist or whatever you would call it. I think it kind of loses a lot of momentum once there is ... well the ending (resolution).

There are some interesting and good moments before. You have some nice jump scares (if you call them nice) and some character beats ... that may work in the context of the movie or not. The actors do their best, but you may find their characters annoying ... and you have not seen anything yet. Roll (or rather ride ... sorry not sorry) with it ... otherwise you will be bored I reckon.

Unexpected surprise!

[stevesinger-2001 · 8/10 · 19 August 2023]

"Dark Windows" tells the story of four friends -- Tilly, Monica, Peter, and Ali. They are out for a ride one night and there is an accident and Ali is killed. The other three friends feel awful, especially Tilly, who was driving the car. After an uncomfortable situation at Ali's wake, Tilly, Monica, and Peter go out to Monica's grandparents' old house to spend a few days and blow off some steam. But strange things seems to be happening once they get there ...

"Dark Windows" was a one of the great low-budget surprises that show up once in a while if you're a genre fan. Given the familiar storyline, I was just sort of hoping it would be serviceable but it was so much more that that. It lets its secrets unfold slowly and organically, and plays very cleverly on our expectations. It knows what we are expecting and then delivers something different.

Technically, it's great -- well lit and clear sound. We spend most of the film with just our main three characters and the acting is uniformly excellent among all of them. And it nailed the ending, playing out in a way that was totally unexpected to me and was far nastier and harsher than I anticipated.

Recommended without reservation.

A good cozy slow burn...

[JK-WhatsUpWeirdoPodcast · 9/10 · 7 September 2023]

I may be in the horror lover minority here but I love an extremely slow burn. I would rather it be the slowest of burns than a bloodbath from the get go for no reason. It's a rainy night here and this was precisely the movie I wanted to watch. Emotional, suspenseful, eery, very well acted, beautiful cinematography, and some very creepy touches. Also one kill in particular that I'll remember for a long time. Quite frankly I don't even know how they filmed it. That right there was worth the whole damn movie. But yeah this was way better than I thought it would be, if you're a fan of You're Next, Watcher, The Strangers I think you'll dig this. Spoiler-free (mostly horror) reviews regularly on my podcast What's Up Weirdo, see ya there :)

I loved it

[bjornrhein · 8/10 · 21 April 2024]

I actually think this is a great movie, I hesitated when I saw the low ratings here but there was something with it anyway that made me rent it , I like this kind of movies and I just had a good feeling, and I am so happy I followed that instinct, this was great

Sure you have earlier references to I know what you did last summer, but this was better and way out better story, creepy level is high and it start just as I like it, slow and small things in the background that telling you something is wrong

I really dont understand why people didnt like it , perhaps its the stoneage cave people that thought this was a slasher with violence and blood, not sure , cause this is a great movie and I am very sensitive with movies , not easy to satisfy.

Good suspense

[Christopher370 · 9/10 · 8 October 2023]

I came across this flick while looking for a good horror on Amazon and the trailer showed three people trapped in a house with a killer outside which was was just the type of mindless slasher I was in the mood for tonight.

It turned out to be much better than I expected and the suspense slowly builds up throughout the film until the intense ending. No spoilers will be shared here though. Just the general plot... After the death of a friend, 3 friends of the deceased go to a house in the country to overcome their grief...but they're not alone. The horror doesn't begin right away but the tension slowly builds throughout the first hour keeping you engaged. I wasn't bored at any point and I usually shut films off after 10 minutes if i'm not getting into it.

The acting by all the leads was pretty good, especially by the lead girl and none of the characters made stupid decisions like they do in most of these types of films.

I'm rating it a 9 because with so many bad new horrors out there today, this was a nice surprise and I was into it the whole way through. I paid 3.99 to rent it, but if you wait a while it'll most likely be free to stream soon, but I don't feel like I wasted my money on it because I really enjoyed it. Definitely recommended if you're into suspense with good acting and I thought the ending was pretty intense and done well.

A solid supsene/horrific movie.

[mychakk · 8/10 · 28 October 2023]

It was a fourth movie in a Halloween marathon at local cinema, and it did very well in comparison to the others. I wasn't bored, the story/mystery, though hinted gradually and solvable, was engaging to keep me focused on the movie.

The acting was good, I felt for the characters - each of the main actors did a great job of bringing out the characters they played. I felt for them, I sympathised with them, I was sad for them in the end at the end.

There were good jump scares, and tension filled scenes. The finale was surprising in a way, like it was obvious there was a voice mail record of the accident, but the mystery was who had gotten it.

The movie is a tale of dealing with tragedy, a take on dealing with grief and trauma. We have 4 different takes. And all of them painfully real and relatable. I liked it a lot.

The only plothole is, that the house belonged to one of the girl's grandmothers. She's not related to the killer. So then why and how did the killer know the layout of it? And could have prepared everything? That doesn't make sense.

Nevertheless, a good suspense, horrific movie.

Excellent and Wicked!!

[kyleallencole9 · 8/10 · 10 March 2024]

Can't believe this one didn't come out to theaters here in the United States. Would of loved to have seen this in theaters.

Came across it as a rental on Amazon and I'm so glad I rented it!

Excellent from start to finish. Definitely an awesome teen thriller. Enjoyed the slow burn side to it.

Perfectly acted and cleverly directed as well!

The last half was one wild ride and the violence was intense and brutal.

The three leads did an amazing job and the director did a great job creating an atmosphere filled with dread and terror.

I loved the isolated country setting, added a spooky touch to the film.

Highly recommend this nice little surprise!

Amazing Suspense Action!

[KFstudios2009 · 8/10 · 19 January 2024]

Dark Windows is the perfect suspense-slasher to watch for some adrenaline and excitement. It delivers the scariness and action, but this film was just much more than that. I will go through the story and tell how it started, what was good, what was bad, and lastly how it ended and concluded. So the beginning started of pretty interesting, the plot starts of with three teenagers, that had a friend, she died in a car accident, and that was kinda their fault, even if they didn't intended to kill her, of course. They want to forget everything and so they go on a weekend to a hut in the middle of nowhere. So what I can say is that I expected more from the start. Expected it more with feeling and power, something that would keep the action up, but it was a little generic. It wasn't bad, but it could be better. The three teenagers were great to learn more about though, and I enjoyed the character development that was put in here. The actors was playing very real and didn't have that fake, plastic fear that many people have in slasher films. I liked that they evolved the sadness and lost of their friend, and it looked like they really cared about her. But I wished something more could happen, something on the hut they went to, just to spice up things and make it less generic. In the middle of the film, I think it become much, much greater. The suspense was beginning to warm up, and I really liked the jump-scares and sudden, abrupt sounds and appearances. The killer was more of a background thing that was hiding in the shadows, and I liked it very much. One of the teenagers, Tilly (That is the main focus of the story) starts to notice strange sounds and creepy appearances that might be connected to other things in her past, and I really liked the connections here, how everything lapped together. I especially liked the creepy sounds and voice-recordings that was used to scare the protagonists. Something that made things even more connected than ever. Anyways, the ending. Wow, it was amazing. The suspense reached the finale level, and the action, fighting and surviving started. From 2023 horror movies that have come out this year, this most be the best at suspense. The killer was fully revealed, and he was very scary. His mask was simple, yet effective and gave the empty look of a psychopath. The killings were very brutal and violent, but well presented and well done. It was especially one scene that made a shock, it was brutal, and had a symbolic meaning to the victim that made it even more terrifying. But the plot twist, well, it was predictable, but still something cool. The final girl that was supposed to be the last killed victim, survived, but not because she escaped. No. Because the killer let her live. He wanted her to remember the terrible things that happened to her friends, and from my point of view it was a much greater punishment than death. Something unexpected for horror films, but I liked the concept. Lastly let's go through the technicals. Great music (Especially the end credit song that made a good contrast), nice filming (I liked the filming locations. It was filmed in Norway) and the camera angles that were used. The dialogues and script was surprisingly good, nothing felt reused or unoriginal, it felt quite fresh and new for the slasher genre. To summarize, Dark Windows was a damn good slasher, directed by the Norwegian director Alex Herron. Something you should definitely watch if you like a good horror and high suspense!