Rent Dark Summer (2015)

Difficult to warm to - Dark Summer review by NP

17 year old Daniel (Keir Gilchrist) is under house arrest. Any attempt to deviate from the various rules quoted him and an ankle alarm informs lizard-like probation officer Stokes and further discipline will be gleefully administered. So creepy is Stokes (Peter Stormare) that you would expect top feel sorry for Daniel, but that doesn’t really happen. Well played by Gilchrist, he is nevertheless too odd to elicit much in the way of sympathy. The two main female characters – both young and attractive - have the hots for the young outcast, and this causes the thrust of the plot. At least, I think it does. Daniel’s pal Kevin (Maestro Harrell), who appears to be the most decent of the bunch, is still eager to come round (breaking one of the rules of the lad’s incarceration) and get drunk and stoned (that’s rules 2 and 3 out of the window as well) – so there aren’t really any decent characters in this gang.

There are some effective moments here, and some good effects, all filmed in creepily exploratory close-up, but sadly ‘Dark Summer’ as a whole is too thinly plotted, not particularly clear in its development and much of it is dull. Apart from the vindictive Stokes, the characters aren’t interesting and although the film has its moments – and a terrific ending – it just isn’t terribly engaging. 4 out of 10.