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TIFF Review: Jeremy Saulnier’s ‘Hold the Dark’ is Beautifully Bleak

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Hold the Dark Netflix

Hold the Dark is the latest film from extraordinarily talented director Jeremy Saulnier (Murder Party, Blue Ruin, Green Room). It’s a harsh, bleak, and visually stunning thriller set in the sparse isolation of a small Alaskan community. Saulnier’s previous films have also focused on isolated communities, but Hold the Dark is by far the largest in scale.

In Hold the Dark, we follow writer Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright – Westworld, Boardwalk Empire), a retired naturalist and wolf expert. He receives a letter from young grieving mother Medora Sloane (Riley Keogh – Mad Max: Fury Road, It Comes at Night) whose 6-year-old son was taken by a wolf pack that has already claimed three other local children. Medora asks Core to come to Alaska to kill the wolves as local authorities have made no steps to help the isolated (and mostly Indigenous) community.

When Medora’s husband, Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård – True Blood, War on Everyone), returns from the Iraq War, the news of his son’s death ignites a violent chain of events that drags Core into a vicious heart of darkness.

via IMDb

Written by Macon Blair – who has also appeared in all three of Saulnier’s previous feature films – and adapted from the 2014 novel by William Giraldi, Hold the Dark is wonderfully economical in its exposition.

As an audience, we only see and hear what is needed to tell the story we’re immediately faced with. Still, the information we are given is extremely limited and mostly implied. Lines are subtly dropped that allow the viewer to piece together other points in the backstory, but Blair makes you work for it, and much is left open to interpretation.

It adds a layer of mystery that echoes the emotionally closed nature of the characters on screen. We gain just as much from the silences as we do the dialogue.

In the interest of keeping this review spoiler-free, the only point to be discussed regarding the plot will be to say that it unfolds in a way that keeps the audience searching for these clues. Visual cues and bits of dialogue cycle back and give an attentive audience more to unpack.

via Metal Underground

The limited daylight in Alaskan winter plays a large part in the atmosphere of the film. The disorientation of a seemingly endless night works in sharp contrast with the overwhelming light of a bright sun on snow.

The film is permeated in darkness; the limited light creates that impression of a harsh cold that you can feel in your bones. This lack of warmth is felt through the characters – there’s a palpable tension and quiet anger lying just under the surface.

One particular confrontation between police chief Donald Marium (James Badge Dale – 13 Hours) and fury-filled local, Cheeon (Julian Black Antelope – Penny Dreadful), simmers with a taut but controlled rage. Every performance in the film is incredible, but this head-to-head had the whole TIFF audience on edge.

The characters of Vernon and Medora Sloane have an unnatural, masking calm that is as captivating as it is unsettling. There’s something about them that you’re never quite sure you understand, which makes them fascinating to watch.

via TIFF

The way that Saulnier shoots scenes of violence is extremely effective. He captures the horrific and gruesome acts without lingering long enough to glorify them.

The result is just as stomach-churning without being gratuitous, and it mimics the way we often naturally observe brutal injuries – we glance long enough to register, then turn away to process.

Think of the arm injury or stomach slit in Green Room, for example. You can remember exactly what they look like, even though each are only visible for 1-2 seconds.

via Netflix

The beautiful but isolating wilderness of Alaska is cleverly used by Saulnier and cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jønck (A Hijacking). Though shot in Alberta, Canada, the message is the same: we are insignificant, and nature is beyond our control. 

Hold the Dark wraps around concepts of parental trauma, isolation, neglect, and our own personal nature. There are different sides to every story, and in one way or another, we’re all villains here.

 

Hold the Dark arrives on Netflix on September 28th.

via Netflix

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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