Dark, 2015
Kate (Whitney Able) lives in an apartment in New York City with her girlfriend Leah (Alexandra Breckenridge). One weekend, while Leah is away, the city experiences a huge blackout. Alone in the apartment, Kate's mental state begins to unravel.
Considering the abysmal 3.5 rating this one has on the IMDb, I was pleasantly surprised by the first act. We begin with a contentious sex scene in which an uncomfortable Leah repeatedly resists Kate's requests for rougher sex. (Okay, I fully endorse not choking people because
do not choke people!, but you won't pull her hair? Those are not even in the same realm, friend). If it wasn't obvious enough from the opening scene, we see Kate wait until Leah has left for work before calling to answer Craigslist ads for sublets. Yikes.
From there we see Kate go to work, leading a yoga class where a male student repeatedly tries to get her attention before waiting until after class to explicitly ask her out on a date. Kate turns him down, but when she tells Leah about this interaction, Leah is jealous and hostile. These opening sequences set the scene for Kate's general incompatibility with her relationship and environment. She's in a situation where things aren't right, and she's on that edge of cutting her losses.
Then we swing into the middle act of the film as the power dies during a heat wave, and the film just sort of goes down with the power grid.
At this point we get a series of scenes meant to show the discomfort Kate is made to feel in the city and even her own apartment. First a neighbor, John (Brendan Sexton III, who, I'll tell you right now, is probably the reason I added this to my watchlist) stops by to ask her out for a drink and then will not let her end the conversation, eventually offering to make her and her "roommate" mix CDs before Kate manages to close the door on him. Later she goes to a bar where she meets mysterious Canadian Benoit (Michael Eklund, the man who can look like he's in his 30s or his 60s depending on the lighting), engaging in some serious flirting before he abruptly ends their conversation.
Kate, drunk, makes her way back to the apartment where she basically proceeds to have a breakdown, convinced that someone is watching her and/or trying to get into the apartment.
I really feel for Able, who I think does a good job in her role. She's playing a woman who has moved to New York from West Virginia, and she does a good job of giving you the sense of a person who is going through the motions of a life she wanted, but is fundamentally dissatisfied with that life. Unfortunately, the film stays way too vague. Is Kate suicidal? Is she seriously mentally ill? Is she experiencing hallucinations? What we get is a series of scenes where she's losing it, but it feels very unanchored. And because the movie leans so hard into the idea of her being mentally ill, there's a lack of suspense. There should be a strong sense of vulnerability and isolation due to the blackout and Leah being out of town, but neither of those things come through very well.
There's some talent here, but once the power went out the film steadily lost my interest and also lost its sense of specificity. It's a shame, because the first act made it feel like a tense character study was in the cards. Alas. (I do think that a 3.5 is a bit harsh, but my guess is that a lot of people rating/reviewing are mad that the film is billed as a horror movie but has precious little content that feels "horror").
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