Victor Salva is an experienced writer and director who knows how to deliver entertaining and frightening horror films. 2001’s Jeepers Creepers was one of the stronger additions to a resurgent genre and demonstrated skill and originality. Disappointingly though Salva’s new film Dark House lacks these previous strengths and ultimately falls a little flat.
Nick Di Santo (Luke Kleintank) is a young man with issues. Cursed with a dark gift that allows him to see some people’s deaths simply through touch he struggles through life with few friends and a reputation as something of a odd loner. Desperate to discover the origin of his affliction Nick sets out on a road trip with best, and perhaps only, friend Ryan (Anthony Rey Perez) and pregnant girlfriend Eve (Alex McKenna) to an abandoned mansion he has been bequeathed in his late mother’s will. To add to Nick’s confusion the property exactly resembles one he has been dreaming about his entire life.
When they finally locate the curiously misplaced house someone or something has taken up residence and a father Nick never knew may hold answers to questions he dare not ask.
The first thing to say is that there are just too many things going on in Dark House for it to hold together cohesively. It is almost like there are several different ideas and stories vying for prominence. Influences vary wildly from demonic possession to out and out slasher but none are given enough room and time to satisfactorily assert themselves. What’s left is a stuttering narrative that lurches wildly from one misplaced plot contrivance to the next without ever really drawing the viewer into what is going on. Characters constantly make strange and unjustified decisions that result in forced and coincidence laden set pieces engineered solely to provide random deaths.
The disappointing thing about all this is that Dark House is actually well acted and passably directed. All the cast handle a script that at times is awkwardly unwieldy with Tobin Bell embracing his role with a familiar menace and he alone briefly promises to offset the blandness but ultimately fails. Some of the visuals are at times striking and add to occasional moments of tension but these dissipate quickly and forgettably amidst the confused plot.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Somewhere there was a good basic premise hidden somewhere within Dark House’s overcomplicated story but it is virtually impossible to find. This is really example of the old adage “less is more” and with even a semblance of routine, formulaic simplicity this could have been a film that warranted comparisons with Salva’s earlier works.
