Rent The Dark (2018)

Not quite as interesting as it promises to be - The Dark review by NP

As a title, ‘The Dark’ is about as generic as you can get: it tells you nothing about this film, and so the hope is that you will go in blind as I did, with no preconceptions. The idea of a feral, scarred girl living in the isolated home in which she was abused is a promisingly disturbing one. Her friendship with young Alex (Toby Nichols), whose eyes have been burnt out and cannot see her disfigurement allows us to witness a potentially touching relationship.

My feelings are that having set up this interesting premise, writer/director seems to have trouble bringing the story forward. Once Mina (Nadia Alexander) first speaks, she ceases to become quite so animalistic. Lucid and intelligent as she and Alex both are, the wonder is why they both choose to live this ramshackle, cannibalistic lifestyle – although the end revelation may go somewhere to answering that.

Not quite as interesting as it initially promises to be, ‘The Dark’ is nevertheless a good attempt at something thought-provoking and interesting. My score is 6 out of 10.