‘From the dark’ is a vampire-survival horror from ‘Stiches’ director Conor McMahon and released by Dark Sky Films.
Sarah and Mark (Niamh Algar and Stephen Cromwell) are on a trip through the Irish countryside when their car breaks down. Sarah stays with the car whilst Mark walks to a local farmhouse to get some assistance. Unbeknownst to them the owner of the farmhouse has accidentally uncovered a strange looking corpse that is far from dead. As night falls the couple are in serious danger as a mysterious figure hungry for blood stalks them.
‘From the dark’ takes some very clichéd horror tropes and manages to come up with something fun and interesting. The set-up has been done before in countless movies, car breaks down: check, couple separate to find help: check. Explore abandoned eerie house with a torch: check.
What the film has going for it is the high quality of its two leads. Both Algar and Cromwell have good chemistry together. There’s a bit of the usual couples bickering nonsense but the rest of the dialogue is pretty incidental and believably natural. There’s good atmosphere too, they have a great location and despite all the dark scenes it looks pretty good without being over-lit.
This is a creature feature and its vampire is suitably creepy and grim looking, more Nosferatu that Dracula, bat-like and monstrous. It is mostly glimpsed creeping in the shadows or out of focus in the background. It’s an effort that works in its favour as McMahon knows it’s far better to glimpse the horror than be bombarded by it. There are some good and effective shots of the vampire stalking the leads without any kind of cue from the soundtrack leaving the moment to make an impression rather than startle you. Soundtrack wise again it’s simple and effective. It’s not overdone either. There are some jump scares but these are kept to a minimum.
There are some inventive scenes involving the couple trying to use all the light sources they can to keep the vampire at bay and there’s one great effect using the shadows on the wall to create a simple but very effective death.
My grumble would be that at 90 minutes it’s too long. I think losing 15 minutes would have gone a long way to add to the pace. There are also shots from the Vampire’s POV in Vamp-Vision that look a bit cheesy and spoil the tension.
‘From the dark’ is a simple and effective vampire horror that’s well acted, stylishly filmed. Perfect for a night in. ‘From the dark’ is streaming now on Netflix.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Simple and stylish vampire creature feature
