By Simon Thompson
Director Adam Hulin and writer Michael D.Acosta’s Blackest Darkness is a stunning, original, and bleak piece of horror filmmaking dripping in more atmosphere than a sweaty tube carriage. Hulin and Acosta both have a natural ability to make the audience feel uneasy, and the combination of Hulin’s tight camera angles and close ups and Acosta’s sparse, dreamlike script work in perfect tandem to create a feeling of uneasiness that most horror-filmmakers would spend 72 hours watching Gareth Southgate’s England to obtain in some kind of unholy Faustian pact.
Blackest Darkness centres around a mysterious protagonist only referred to as Drill man (Aaron Dunlap). After leaving his mundane job, Drill man decides to stop off to relax at a diner before heading home to celebrate his wife’s birthday. A Hitchcockian snag is put in these plans however, as he is mistaken for being a part of a gang of bank robbers and suddenly finds himself trapped in this newly enforced identity, with the consequences of his actions only swallowing him further and further whole.
If you enjoy plot centric horror movies, Blackest Darkness isn’t going to be your cup of tea. Acosta’s script is extremely ambiguous and leaves a lot of the narrative up to interpretation, to the extent that I actually wish the finished movie was half an hour to forty minutes longer because large sections of the second act were in dire need of more development. The dialogue itself, on the other hand, is excellent. Acosta has a strong ,almost Tarantino and Mamet like, distinctive wit which adds a much needed sense of levity to what could be described as a largely pessimistic outing.
Visually, however, Blackest Darkness is so striking and dreamlike I’m more than willing to go on the journey that Acosta and Hulin have crafted. Cinematographer Justin A.Wallace is a talent to watch out for- his use of washed blacks and reds, combined with almost hellish brightness in some of the movie’s interior scenes, is a look that I could best describe as some sort of unholy amalgamation between Lost Highway and No Country For Old Men that you won’t soon forget.
From an acting perspective Aaron Dunlap shines in his portrayal of Drill Man, imbuing him with a sense of frustrated and desperate hopelessness that adds a grounding to Michael D.Acosta’s surreal, Lynchian script. Anthony G. Marshall and Carl J. Grasso also excel in their roles as Tony and Lou, the two bank robbers who take in Drill man, with their sharp banter and arguing acting as the movie’s largest source of humour, managing to make the audience laugh but also keeping them on edge at the same time, because underneath it’s absolutely clear that they’re capable of anything.
To conclude, if you’re looking for a truly original yet unpretentious and well directed horror movie, Blackest Darkness might be just what the doctor ordered. What this movie may lack in narrative development it more than makes up for with convincing acting and sharp visuals.
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