Dark Was the Night

Released Jul 24, 2015

1h 38m

Drama

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

52%

21 Reviews

Tomatometer

36%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

When a logging company decimates a forest in a small town, a sheriff (Kevin Durand) and his deputy (Lukas Haas) must confront the violent and unexplainable events that follow.

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Cari L

It was really good. The writing was well done along with the cast and acting. The atmosphere was perfect for a creature feature film in a remote setting. The downfall of the movie, however, comes to the creature reveal and the last 5-10 seconds of the film. The creature doesn't make biological sense and just looks like they couldn't figure out what they wanted to model it after, so they just decided to mush everything together and decided that that was good enough. Additionally, they really cemented their lack of biological awareness in that they made the creature not the only one. For it to be an undiscovered animal that is moving into developed land, a creature that large would have been few and far between, and would not travel in a pack-like formation, descending on the church in a large force. If it were a pair or a trio of these creatures, it would make more sense. Additionally, an animal that they framed to be THIS territorial (alongside the context provided in the film) would be unlikely to travel with other members of its kind due to the competition of resources. Other than those issues, I liked the rest of it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/21/24

Full Review

Martine S

I loved this film. People are always too quick to judge films like this when they first come out, but seeing it now in 2023 its excellent. far better then the movies we get now.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/01/24

Full Review

Ivana J

It's scary and it was a decent story line. But the ending could have been a bit stronger.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/27/23

Full Review

Ronald H

As limited budget horror movies go, Dark Was the Night is a step above, thanks to a good script, deliberate pacing, excellent cinematography, and most of all, capable acting not usually seen in such fare. Kevin Durand is Paul Shields, the sheriff in a small upstate New York town. He's wrestling with a separation from his wife, shared custody of their young son, and the loss of his other son in an accident. But he doesn't have a lot of time to dwell on his own problems, because horses, deer, and humans begin to be slaughtered by an unseen creature in the woods. Many of them are found high up in trees. Shields investigates with the help of his new deputy Danny (Lukas Haas), a New York City transplant with a few issues from his own past. It's well over an hour into the film before we see anything more than brief glimpses of the creature, but we see him in all his horrible glory in the last act. While some critics considered him rather unimpressive, I disagree. You would not want to run into him on a country road. Much of the above sounds like a bunch of melodrama and horror movie cliches, but "Dark" manages to use them in a fairly intelligent way. There's not a lot of wasted dialogue---Durand is taciturn and Haas is not too talkative, either. Shield's family problems are not overblown, and they fit comfortably into the story without seeming like an extraneous subplot. Saving the reveal of the creature until the final act is not a new device, but it's filmed impressively (in a church where the residents of the town have taken refuge), and it's damned scary. This film doesn't break any new ground, but it's not intended to. It's designed to scare and entertain without evoking unintentional laughter from incredulous viewers as so many horror flicks do, and it mostly succeeds.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/08/23

Full Review

Georgan G

3 & 1/4 stars. This movie has a cleverly written plot that kept me on the edge of my seat. Problem is the creature was a bit silly looking. Final scene was back to creepy with lots of the creatures climbing around.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good story line, good special effects, good acting. I really liked this movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

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Jack Heller

Director

Kevin Durand

Paul Shields

Lukas Haas

Donny Saunders

Bianca Kajlich

Susan Shields

Nick Damici

Earl Lerner

Sabina Gadecki

Actor

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Dennis Harvey

Variety

A well-crafted horror pic that compensates (at least to a point) for its lack of original ideas with nice atmospherics and judicious restraint.

Jul 24, 2015

Full Review

Glenn Kenny

RogerEbert.com

"Dark Was The Night" is a horror movie, a creepy and atmospheric and sometimes blood-soaked horror movie, and it's got a good amount going for it.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 24, 2015

Full Review

Martin Tsai

Los Angeles Times

It's quite obvious the filmmakers didn't put a lot of thought into it and went straight for the cheapest thrills.

Jul 23, 2015

Full Review

Abbie Bernstein

Assignment X

Dark Was The Night feels like a horror offering from the era when the genre was expected to consist of real movies that also contained scares, rather than cynical, self-referential processed product. This Dark delivers.

Rated: B+

Dec 14, 2018

Full Review

Molly Henery

The Blogging Banshee

In general, the acting was excellent (especially Durand). I also loved that they took a creative, original story line and turned it into an exceptionally creepy film.

Rated: 7.5/10

Nov 2, 2018

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

An atmospheric creature fright film competently directed by Jack Heller.

Rated: B-

May 21, 2016

Full Review

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Synopsis

When a logging company decimates a forest in a small town, a sheriff (Kevin Durand) and his deputy (Lukas Haas) must confront the violent and unexplainable events that follow.

Director: Jack Heller
Producer: Ross M. Dinerstein, Tyler Hisel, Kevin Iwashina, Ted Markovic, Alexander Robb
Screenwriter: Tyler Hisel
Distributor: Image Entertainment
Production Co: Preferred Content, Sundial Pictures
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 24, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 1, 2016
Runtime: 1h 38m

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