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The Dark Hours

Play trailer Poster for The Dark Hours R 2005 1h 22m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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62% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 50% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Samantha Goodman (Kate Greenhouse), a psychiatrist dying of brain cancer, sets off for a weekend getaway with her sister, Melody (Iris Graham), and husband, David (Gordon Currie). During the trip, escaped mental patient Harlan Pyne (Aidan Devine) arrives and holds them hostage. Determined to take revenge on Goodman for mistreating him during his stay at an institution, Pyne and his devious sidekick, Adrian (Dov Tiefenbach), subject the trio to an excruciating night of torture.

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Linda Barnard Toronto Star By the time The Dark Hours starts to get good, it's more than midway into the movie. Rated: 2.5/4 Nov 11, 2005 Full Review Stephen Cole Globe and Mail The Dark Hours is a remarkably assured homage to psychological horror films from the sixties and seventies. Rated: 3.5/4 Nov 11, 2005 Full Review Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter Proves as cliche-ridden as its title. Oct 25, 2005 Full Review Scott Weinberg DVDTalk.com Speeds through its scant 80-minute running time with no muss, no fuss, and a surprisingly watchable demeanor. Rated: 3/5 Jun 25, 2006 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com worth tracking down Rated: 4/5 Apr 9, 2006 Full Review Andy Mauro Dread Central While it's possible to watch The Dark Hours, strictly as a tense as hell backwoods-psycho-torture film, there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Rated: 4/5 Jan 30, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (103) audience reviews
Audience Member Very good movie and even though the ending was chaotic I thought that the beauty of the film. You get to choose your own ending and that is something unique that not many movies have. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I thought the acting was laughable in this movie it was also predictable. I looked forward too seeing this movie so I was very dissapointed. I give this movie a D-. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 04/22/19 Full Review delysid d A psycho takes revenge on his doctor. Not horrible Rated 3 out of 5 stars 04/26/17 Full Review Audience Member A psychological thriller that starts off as a decent film, but by the end, I could not make heads or tails from what actually happened. If they would have made a clearer ending, this film may have been worth sitting through and gotten a better rating. As is, I can't recommend this film since it would have been the same thing if the movie just ended without the last 25 minutes of it. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Ho boy. Don't look for any great indie revelation regarding the psychological thriller. Expect what you would anticipate in a film of this genre..with nothing special. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member <B><I>THE DARK HOURS</I> (Independent, 2005)</B> WRITTEN BY: Wil Zmak DIRECTED BY: Paul Fox FEATURING: Kate Greenhouse, Bruce McFee, Jeff Seymour, David Calderisi, Trevor Hayes, Gordon Currie, Kathryn Haggis, Iris Graham, Dov Tiefenbach, Aidan Devine GENRE: <B>CHILLER</B> TAGS: horror-thriller, dismemberment, rape RATING: <B>8 PINTS OF BLOOD</B> PLOT: <B>When a troubled- psychiatrist takes a sabbatical in her remote cabin, a former patient makes the scene and a shocking black bedlam spirals out of bounds in this smart, stylish horror thriller</B> COMMENTS: Like a brain surgeon's deftly wielded scalpel sinking into grey matter, skillful manipulation of cinematic elements merges with subtle transpositions in The Dark Hours. Along with clever segue-ways and strategically positioned ambiguity, The Dark Hours' filmmakers blur the line between objective and subjective reality in this fast-moving nail biter. It's engrossing, captivating, slickly edited and well-acted. Get ready for some disturbing twists and an unsettling climax. The Dark Hours keeps us guessing, dangling over the precipice between our home theater easy chairs, contemplating "what ifs," and fretting over what will happen next. And what happens next is just ... well just awful! For the characters in the story, that is. When institutional head-shrinker, Samantha Goodman (Kate Greenhouse) takes refuge from a personal crisis in her secluded snowbound cabin, she expects a quiet weekend with her aspiring novelist husband David (Gordon Currie) and sister Melody (Irius Graham). A worn expression about best-laid plans comes to mind, as one thing, something terrible, leads to another. Much of the action takes place after dark in Sam's remote abode, illuminated in a flickering amber candle and fireplace glow. There's a claustrophobic feeling inside the bungalow, which contrasts with the utter desolateness of the wide open, frozen tundra nightscape upon which it vulnerably sits. Hanging precariously by only a few threads, a wispy, gauze-like veneer of sanity separates the known from the uncertain. Only the cabin's frail wooden door insulates the occupants from infiltration by malevolent elements which might appear from anywhere out in the night. Indeed, such elements come knocking and once that creaky door is opened, sheer hell breaks loose. Instead of her hoped-for introspective interlude with David, from whom Samantha desperately requires emotional support, she instead discovers she's trapped in a love triangle between David and Melody. Just as Sam starts to unravel the details, the arrival of a duo of lunatics (literally) disrupts her family affair. The more the merrier, however, as the uninvited guests intend to help Sam acquire some truly objective perspective about her situation -and theirs. One of the interlopers is a patient, Harlan (Aidan Devine), with whom Samantha has a controversial history. He's escaped, and now with twitchy teenage protégé Adrian (Dov Tiefenbach) in tow, Harlan wants to impress upon Sam that he never much cared for her less-than-Hippocratic bedside manner. To boot, Harlan plans to help Sam sort out her domestic and professional issues, Jungian style. Or maybe just Nietzsche and Dr. Mengele style. Because while Harlan's diseased cerebrum is squirming like a toad, it turns out his is not the only one. Harlan detects that all present are in need of a little "psycho" therapy. Delightfully, he just happens to have a treatment regimen in mind for everyone -one which champions truth, illumination, and ... well this won't hurt a bit. OK, maybe just a LITTLE! Because it's going to start with some excruciatingly morbid games, games at gunpoint which involve a telephone, a diary and pair of cutting pliers. As the quintet prepare to venture on a schizophrenic journey of enlightenment, seamless perceptual juxtapositions provide an eerie insight to the escalating chain of developments, some of which are relayed via foreboding flashbacks and non-linear plot points. What ensues is pure bedlam when all involved spiral into a swirling maelstrom of horrid revelations and bloody confrontation. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Dark Hours

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Movie Info

Synopsis Samantha Goodman (Kate Greenhouse), a psychiatrist dying of brain cancer, sets off for a weekend getaway with her sister, Melody (Iris Graham), and husband, David (Gordon Currie). During the trip, escaped mental patient Harlan Pyne (Aidan Devine) arrives and holds them hostage. Determined to take revenge on Goodman for mistreating him during his stay at an institution, Pyne and his devious sidekick, Adrian (Dov Tiefenbach), subject the trio to an excruciating night of torture.
Director
Paul Fox
Producer
Brent Barclay
Screenwriter
Wil Zmak
Rating
R (Terror|Sexual Content|Language|Violence)
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 19, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA)
$423
Runtime
1h 22m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital