STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) is a retired survivalist and Iraq war veteran, who has been called to the snowy climbs of Alaska by Melora Slone (Riley Keough), a local woman whose young son has gone missing. She has no hope of getting her son back, she simply wants Core to find the wolf that took him (???!!!??? I know) and exact revenge (hope he finds the right wolf.) But when Melora's husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgard), a man deeply damaged by his experiences in Iraq, returns home, events are plunged into a terrifying and sinister spiral, where nothing is as it seems.
While undoubtedly sights of natural beauty and wonder, snow covered regions, especially those in mountain locations, still provide really effective backdrops for dark, moody thrillers, from the Coen Brother's Fargo to Stephen King's Misery. Hold the Dark, director Jeremy Saulnier's second feature after the dismal 2005 heavy metal thriller Green Room, continues this tradition, albeit to mixed effect. The set up is just right, and the air of mystery does work, but the execution and the eventual outcome decidedly fail to give it the resolution it deserves.
Saulnier definitely doesn't skimp on the dark moodiness, and drenches his film in a blacked out, uncompromising glare that fills it with little hope or happiness. He also denies it pretty much anything in the way of humour or light relief, displaying characters that are consumed with regret and cynicism. The only vaguely uplifting thing is some wonderful overhead cinematography of the Alaskan mountains. In that sense it does what it says on the tin, the only trouble is a nonsensical set up that doesn't survive scrutiny (even if it has come from the mouth of a grieving mother) and a baffling ending that fails to adequately resolve something you've invested over two hours of your time in.
It's infinitely better than Saulnier's last film, and it's faults do not crush its strengths, but Hold the Dark is a film with everything on the surface right, but some problems beneath the foundations that threaten to crash it all down. ***
Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) is a retired survivalist and Iraq war veteran, who has been called to the snowy climbs of Alaska by Melora Slone (Riley Keough), a local woman whose young son has gone missing. She has no hope of getting her son back, she simply wants Core to find the wolf that took him (???!!!??? I know) and exact revenge (hope he finds the right wolf.) But when Melora's husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgard), a man deeply damaged by his experiences in Iraq, returns home, events are plunged into a terrifying and sinister spiral, where nothing is as it seems.
While undoubtedly sights of natural beauty and wonder, snow covered regions, especially those in mountain locations, still provide really effective backdrops for dark, moody thrillers, from the Coen Brother's Fargo to Stephen King's Misery. Hold the Dark, director Jeremy Saulnier's second feature after the dismal 2005 heavy metal thriller Green Room, continues this tradition, albeit to mixed effect. The set up is just right, and the air of mystery does work, but the execution and the eventual outcome decidedly fail to give it the resolution it deserves.
Saulnier definitely doesn't skimp on the dark moodiness, and drenches his film in a blacked out, uncompromising glare that fills it with little hope or happiness. He also denies it pretty much anything in the way of humour or light relief, displaying characters that are consumed with regret and cynicism. The only vaguely uplifting thing is some wonderful overhead cinematography of the Alaskan mountains. In that sense it does what it says on the tin, the only trouble is a nonsensical set up that doesn't survive scrutiny (even if it has come from the mouth of a grieving mother) and a baffling ending that fails to adequately resolve something you've invested over two hours of your time in.
It's infinitely better than Saulnier's last film, and it's faults do not crush its strengths, but Hold the Dark is a film with everything on the surface right, but some problems beneath the foundations that threaten to crash it all down. ***