User Reviews

I'm not gonna lie, I am obsessed with David Lynch. My favorite movie of all time is his 1977 film, Eraserhead and close behind that is Elephantman, and Mulholland Drive. I also loved Lost Highway, Twin Peaks, and Blue Velvet. I however haven't been as pleased with his stuff after Mulholland Drive. I thought Inland Empire was a mess and a huge disappointment. This would bring me to Darkened Room. A film that ties into Inland Empire quite a bit but has the same pointless feel as that film. I guess I just have no idea what's going on so I didn't a point in filming it. I did like how it was shot though. It had a very low budget, independent feel and that is very inspiring to me as a young filmmaker. I'm making it a goal to see all of David Lynch's films but this one was a disappointment.

Darkened Room is a short film from David Lynch's digital video phase. It starts with an Asian girl who refers ambiguously to a troubled friend, who we then cut to. She is a visibly upset blonde woman alone in room on a sofa whose face is streaked by mascara from her tears. Later a third woman enters and verbally torments her.

This is a technically raw short film which brought me to mind the look and feel of Lynch's last feature film Inland Empire (2006), a film I have mixed feelings about. With that film, Lynch moved away from the gorgeous visual aesthetic he had hitherto been associated with. The change was mainly down to the move from film to digital video, which looks a lot uglier. The sound in this one is pretty amateurish as well, with the hum of the video camera audible at times. There is still an unmistakable Lynch feel to proceedings though with uncomfortably long pauses where little happens, a mysterious situation that is never fully explained (to say the least) and an ominous low soundtrack maintaining a certain feeling of dread. Lynch does generate an interesting tone to a certain extent but the short run-time never allows him to develop the material into anything very engaging, while it's also a little too lo-fi for its own good as well.

What experimental follies David Lynch loves to go into. And, of course, that's the prerogative of any artist with access to the equipment that Lynch has, and as part of how he goes about using the digital medium to put out ideas he wouldn't of had expressed out for everyone to see years ago. This one, however, shows what good and not so good qualities can come with the mental floodgates let open and with little cohesion. Darkened Room, which like Rabbits may have some connection to Lynch's magnum opus Inland Empire, has three parts to it, with the first two actually not bad at all really. The first, which is very random and hilarious in the vein of the director's absurd idiosyncrasies, shows a Japanese woman in her Tokyo apartment spouting off statistics about bananas, in a weird audio voice. Then, by way of the Japanese woman's 'friend', we move on to the darkened room of the title, where a blond girl sits, mascara smeared on her face, sobbing about something that no matter what she says in-between her cries, doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter too much, in this instance at least, that we don't know exactly why she's crying or how long she's been in the darkened room. The amount of emotional connection that can be felt though, and the subtext behind the words, make it something sort of special.

But then comes that last part, which feels MUCH longer than the other two parts combined, where another woman- another friend of the blonde girl- comes in and just talks and talks about something or this or that, and suddenly, like with a snip with a pair of scissors, the emotional connection is snapped, and what we're left with is Lynch's pretentious ramblings feed through and out of this other actress's mouth. In fact, this last part is one of the worst things I've ever seen from Lynch, as it committed something that I don't like seeing from the director much at all- as it doesn't happen too often for me at any rate- which is that it's dull and weird for the sake of it. Nothing gets resolved, and the end is just a 'huh' that isn't a satisfying one in the slightest. I was left with some good memories of Darkened Room, and some very bad ones too. In a sense it's Lynch working stuff out, via digital video and access on his website, and it'll either appeal to some sense or not. For me, it was both.

when I watched this movie the first time I found myself drifting along the screen looking for little hints such as the puppet and missed out on the dialogue completely. The second time I was certain that the girl was pregnant and not allowed back in her old life which is why she claim`s to be left out although sitting inside a room. The puppet is a visual hint that the crying girl has just learned about her new baby boy and her step-mom or sis or even young mom doesn`t seem to be supporting her very well. For a half-a-day production this is a nice little picture that lynch painted, however maybe i was just being dumb but i missed the in-depth a little bit, hence i`ll watch again and again because we know what kind of books lynch reads ... there`s gotta be something out there. who likes lynch likes dali so why not check out the artwork there is ...

I finally got to have a look at this experimental Lynch short after waiting for so long....and unfortunately, it wasn't worth it! Even for a die hard Lynch fan, I found this to be really tedious....

nothing happens, there are long, long, long painful pauses where nothing happens, long, monotonous speeches where nothing is said and the whole thing finishes with the viewer not knowing, or caring, what the hell it was all about, what happened before and what happened afterward.

There was a Mulholland Drive allusion - the blonde girl and the brunette girl were very Diane and Rita -esque, and a Lost Highway moment with allusions to some significant event that happened but cannot be talked about clearly.

Unfortunately, It's all very uninteresting and very dull, nothing happens, it's very forgettable and I think i will delete it from my computer and forget I ever watched it. Sorry David!

This surreal, short piece of avant garde video art is among David Lynch's lesser works, but that doesn't mean that fans of his cannot get anything out of it. I found it to be highly fascinating in nature, especially due to its cryptic and enigmatic style, one that is certainly Lynchian in every conceivable way. One may consider the early, bizarre scenes featuring an Asian woman discussing bananas to be entirely unrelated to the later, horror-movie type scenes featuring a young woman that seems to be...captured (her situation is never exactly revealed, which makes it all the more haunting) to be entirely disconnected, but the link between these two pars is among the weirdest and most interesting features of this ten minute mystery. Perhaps none of it means anything, but even if it didn't it's still a genuinely scary and surrealist experiment that combines absurdist humor with inexplicable Lynchian madness.

I am a huge fan of David Lynch. This film, however, was a quite disappointing experience. Apart from the ambient background music – which really sets the mood of the film – it lacks almost all the qualities that I've come to associate with Lynch's work. The visuals are dull, to say the least, and the dialog is to vague and monotone to be of any interest.

This feels more like a film students awkward try to do an arty dogma movie than the work of an experienced director. I've seen a lot of amateur movies with far superior camera-work, scenery, sound and script. This film lacks almost all artistic qualities. I feel as though I'm watching one of Davids home videos, produced during a weekend trip with some friends.

Wow, I love and respect pretty much anything that David Lynch has done. However, this movie is akin to a first filmmaker's attempt at making a pseudo art video.

To give you a couple of examples:

1. David Lynch is typically a visual filmmaker, however, this had little visual artistic content (blank walls, "up shots" with ceiling in the background)

2. David Lynch typically takes great pride in audio, however, in this you could even hear the video camera's hum.

In fact, it is very hard to swallow the idea that he had anything to do with this movie. unless...

...this is a joke, on David's part, to force fans search his website (for hours) only to find this drivel. I hope so, because at least that idea is funny.

I love all his work but this looks like nothing.. sorry.. This looks more like a "David Lynch copycat". I think people like it only because "it's from David Lynch".

This is a very intriguing short movie by David Lynch, and saying the name David Lynch is probably enough for a lot of people. This is your typical Lynch short. A blonde and a brunette are in a dark room. The blonde has been crying, the brunette is talking in a threatening way to the blonde, and that's about it.

With a lot of silent moments, but with the haunting music from Angelo Badalamenti, there is a strange form of suspense. This short feels a little like 'Mulholland Dr.', a movie I loved, and therefore I liked this one as well. It is probably especially for Lynch fans but there is a chance you like this.

Just saw "darkend room" and was very disappointed. Like other users here, i'm a huge lynch fan but this film really ISN'T it!

It's strange, right. it contains lynchian themes like a blond and brunette, a dark mysterious event taking place but we don't know what it is, great moody soundtrack, and of course hints that hide in the picture and all you have to do is to clinch them together to get the complete picture.

However, this movie, although containing all these ingredients, is a disappointment not only to lynch fans, but anyone who likes short and artistic films. I sense that lynch himself maybe was surprised with the result, but there was little he could do to fix it. the camera work is not interesting at all and the entire situation looks as if lynch and the actresses are actually rehearsing a scene to be filmed later to the real film. many student films, good and bad, are shot like that, and it seems that lynch, doing the camera work himself, was trying to learn along the way the benefits of using DV instead of 35 mm film.

Unfortunately, all I have to say is that you should'nt play with your audience. learn the technique first and then make the film, don't do it at the same time.

The interesting point in the film is that it might be connected, thematicaly, to another short film called "Rabbits". just a few days ago I read this great theory that the mystery in rabbits might be connected to the scene depicted in darkend room. for those who seen rabbits and try to understand what is it about, this is an intriguing idea.

But to those who didn't see rabbits and don't what i'm talking about, "Darkend room" is a short film that is unimportant and not really interesting. it's like someone else tried to follow the footsteps of the master lynch, but failed to do so. Lynch doing Lynch and not getting anywhere...

Actually spelled "Darkend Room" this is an intriguing but quickly forgettable Lynch piece. Lynch does the camera work himself, and the digital video look has a kind of odd appeal. This is hidden on DavidLynch.com and true Lynch fans should seek it out. I'm a huge fan, but I've been uninspired by this and most of the original work on Lynch's site. I'm hoping there will be more rewarding surprises than this in the near future. These two young women are extremely attractive, though.

...but this just isn't working and I am surprised to see how many people consider it good. On what grounds? There are some loose hints here and there, but the whole material is self-indulgent and unconvincing. Lynch's movies are generally intriguing because they generate a sense of confusion and yet, are very playful when doing that. There is some visual sense, there are some subplots, characters, ideas etc. But this is dull and yes, pointless. Because whatever there is to explore is either to "small", either too far-fetched, or simply told before in a superior manner. It's just Lynch exploring DV, nothing more so it should be treated like this. 1/10

David Lynch's new short is a very "Lynchian" piece, full of darkness, tension, silences, discreet but very textured background music, and features again two beautiful actresses, a blonde and a brunette, a recurrent theme in his work.

Both characters create a very intriguing slave-mistress relationship that could be seen as a direct follow up to the same kind of relationship featured in Mulholland Dr.

Beautiful. For Lynch fan's.

I really think that people are taking the wrong approach at this one. First of all, I find this short-film very entertaining and interesting. I just take it for what it is. I think the suspense and mystery are ingenious in their insinuation upon the watcher. One other thing that caught my fancy was that it immediately gets the viewer involved even though there is no clear story, just hints and pauses and emotions played out by the characters that kind of give you the impression that there is a story to all that is going on. No-one else could have done that better than Lynch. This is the essence of lynchianism at its best. Sure, I will agree with anyone that people that start viewing this with the desire to be entertained without any really imaginative work from the viewer's side, will find themselves disappointed. And in good right. Lynch is not about that. At least this side of Lynch is not. The one that helped make Lost Highway/Mulholland Dr. is at full tilt here and people that just expect to be entertained like they would watching anything else, will just not get what this is all about. My opinion is that Darkened Room is all about messing with your animal-core, your instinctual self, by giving you the means (image, sound, situation) by which you instinctively react. It's not about pleasure of any kind, it's about getting the desired reaction out of you. And, that, my friend, is pure art.

I don't quite know how to explain "Darkend Room," because to summarize it wouldn't really do it justice. It's a quintessentially Lynchian short film with two beautiful girls in a strange, mysterious situation. I would say this short is definitely more on the "Mulholland Drive" end of the Lynchian spectrum, as opposed to "The Elephant Man" or "The Straight Story." It's hidden on Lynch's website, and well worth the search.

Hello, this little film is interesting especially for an artist, film-maker or music creator or a visual artist, for:

One can feel and examine David's touch/style straight out of a short piece of relative simplicity.

You can see the rhythmic spacing of the shots, the pans and the sound elements.

Even as simple film, this creation is multy-layer. For example, there are some sounds that drone all along, while others appear (though subtle), at certain points to support certain shots.

One can see also several types of pans: some go up and down in a gentle back-forth way. There is diagonal pan. Zooms also go back and forth sometimes.

The lightning and the composition/disposition of elements in the space is, as usual and obviously, work of a painer/artist. This can be felt even in this crappy room. This is to say: one can make exquisite art already by the simple art of placing the look/view and composing the scene. Then comes the forcelines of the visuals: like digonales, parallels, etc. The light's degradées and the colours, although without too much research for textures as in big productions, are fine too. This is an artist's sketch of a sort...

All this is not calculated but done with inner feeling and this feel gives the David's touch/feel to it, as with any true artist.