Friday, October 2, 2015

31 Days of Halloween 2015: Dark Was the Night

2014, Jack Heller (mostly a producer Bad Milo, The Scribbler) -- download

We like Kevin Durand, that guy from where Kent came from currently playing the rat catcher turned vampire smoosher on the sorely lacking vampire TV show, The Strain, shot here in TO. He has the calm, powerful exterior I like in my heroes. Strangely enough, the star of Stake Land, which Kent and I enjoyed immensely, sits as a supporting character in this movie, and has that same quiet, calm power as Kevin Durand's sheriff character, out to protect his family from CGI wendigos.

Really, is that giving things away? No, not really. Its a monster movie focused around weird things that go stomp in the night, in the woods. Three toed hooved monsters are scaring horses, eating all the deer and driving away the birds. Sheriff Shields, while dealing with the death of a child (Marmy called that one immediately; yes she knows her tropes) and divorce, is also confronted with something perhaps out of legend, that runs quickly on two legs but also disappears into the trees. Why hasn't it already eaten everyone in  town, if its Of Legend? Because it has a remote hunting ground, only recently disturbed by loggers.

I liked this one, but I am always more partial to monster movies than ghosties. Durand may be a bit too sombre and all too often staring sorrowfully at his toes, but he makes the Good Sheriff. He figures out something is there, in a decent amount of time, in order to move the lingering townsfolk (most run off because of a mega snowstorm, not because of monster) into a church with too many windows and wooden doors. And yes, being American, he also brings with him his automatic weapons.

The unbelievably terrible CGI lizard creature with hoofs is dispatched after some guns and a solid stabbing, but ends the movie with something I didn't quite expect -- no, not a single monster, no not The Mated Pair, but.... OK, an entire nest was disturbed up north. When the dozen or so forest rangers show up in the morning, after the snow storm, they are only going to find an empty town filled with blood splatters, gun shot blasts and clawed, splintered wood. Modern day Roanoke, as Marmy put it.

Maybe we should sit down and begin writing the sequel for them.

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