Whenever I approach a British horror film I grow nervous with feelings of anticipation and of hope. So many pruductions have disappointed and so few, such as Kill List, have surprised and frightened in a wave of finely balanced tension and violence. With Dark Nature I was hopeful. A film set in the Scottish Highlands, an isolated house, a family under attack from a mysterious and deadly force; there was much cause for optimism.
The film opens with views of the isolated, coastal house at night. An elderly woman, Mrs Petrie, is murdered with her typewriter by an elderly man, who then, after covering the body with a blanket decides to take a shower. When he returns, presumably to remove said body, he finds things not quite as he left them, and then he himself is brutally murdered by an as yet unknown assailant. The camera then follows a family on a journey to visit their relatives, the aforementioned Mrs. Petrie, in Scotland. Tensions in the car are high with the mother Jane (Vanya Eadie) having a difficult and fractious relationship with her teenage daughter Chloe (Imogen Toner) while her son McKenzie (Neil Greig Fulton) and her new partner Jonathon (James Bryce) try and maintain some peace and normality.
As they arrive at their destination they discover Mrs. Petrie missing, but find that two friends they had arranged to meet have already arrived. The names of the friends are irrelevant as they seem to be here just to be victims. The family split up to search for the mother, and the mysterious gamekeeper, with the adults heading for the woods and the children preferring the nearby beach. What happens next, and for no established motive or reason, is that the two friends are gorily murdered. The family is then thrown into a fight for survival building to a bloody climax.
I think I can see what director Marc De Launay was trying to do with Dark Nature but I’m just not sure that he’s been successful. The film seems to suffer from a pacing problem. There are long, lingering shots of the beautiful and dramatic countryside and shore, and some interesting, if mixed, camera angles. With the somewhat haunting piano driven music this is all designed to create tension and anticipation in the audience, to give them a feeling of growing unease. The problem for me is that after about half an hour of this I was starting get a little bored so that when the action finally picked up with a killing or two I was neither tense or uncomfortable.
There were also too many unanswered questions. As events take a strange and unpleasant turn why did the family not simply leave in their car and raise the alarm? Jonathon actually does call the police at one point but when he is told that it will be an hour before anyone can be there he accepts this as if he has just been told his main course will be a little late. When then family originally split up to search for the mother their two friends decide to have sex in the lounge before the woman ventures off for a walk on the beach in simply her underwear, despite the seemingly chilly conditions. When she returns to find her partner dead with a cleaver in his head she doesn’t scream or faint; she rummages in his pockets for his car keys, a very calm and surprising reaction.
Even in the anti-climactic final act when the apparent motive is revealed I was still left a little confused. The main theme of an ecological fight back is there but just doesn’t quite fit with what has gone on before and comes across more random than reasoned.
On the plus side the performances are generally good, although the script does appear a little forced at times. The motivations of each character get a little lost though and their actions are somewhat baffling at times with many on the periphery and unnecessary. The direction is at times striking and bold but all too often spends too long on a scene giving the film a ponderous feeling overall. One thing to praise though is the director’s use of his greatest asset; the Scottish scenery, which is stark and barren and I suspect this is one of the intended themes.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Ultimately I didn’t find the film satisfying and perhaps a good idea has been wasted but possibly, in the future, a cult following will emerge for Dark Nature.
