Welcome to another movie review here on the Hive Blockchain.
I am Movie Monkey and am a true film addict.
Hope you enjoy my content. May contain spoilers.
The Dark And The Wicked
- Genre: Horror
- Release Date: 6th November 2020
- Director: Bryan Bertino
- Starring: Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr, Julie Oliver-Touchstone, Lynn Andrews, Xander Berkeley.
The Dark and the Wicked is set within a family home on a rural goat farm in sleepy Texas.
Louise and her Brother Michael have returned to the family home following the news of their ill Fathers worsening health.
As he lies, deteriorating in bed, with his nurse by his side and his Wife broken with grief, he unconsciously waits for his impending death.
The Mother warns that her children should not have come. They should go as the situation is not what they think.
That night the Mother, whilst cutting carrots, chops off her own fingers; slicing into her flesh and sending blood all over the kitchen sink.
The following morning, upon discovering the carnage in the kitchen, the siblings search for their Mother and soon find her in the barn, hanging from the rafters where she has taken her own life.
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The following day, numb with the shock and grief of losing their Mother, they try to understand why she would have taken her life in such a manner.
The Nurse, who has been caring for their Father during the day, tells them that she has been worried about their Mothers mental state, as she seemed increasingly erratic and was on many occasions overheard to be whispering to someone whilst sat at her Husbands bedside.
She tells them that she believes that she was talking to someone other than their Dad. Like there was someone else in the room with them who was not visible.
Later on, Louise takes a shower. She hears a floorboard creak. Pulling back the curtain to investigate, she is confronted with her Father who is stood staring at her.
His skin deathly white and eyes rolled back in his head, looking like a creepy zombie, he violently shakes his head ferociously fast.
Trembling in fear, Louise backs away and tumbles to the shower floor, cowering with fear. But when Michael comes to see why she is screaming, their Dad is found to be still bedridden and asleep.
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Michael finds his Mothers diary. Reading the last entry that she made before her death, they find that she believed that there was someone else in the house, watching them and waiting. Slowly killing David. She pleads for help.
He wants his soul.
Who is he? Was their Mother delusional? What was it that she was so scared of?
Over the days that follow, both Michael and Louise have frightening encounters with their deceased Mother. Michael sees her floating in mid air outside of the house and Louise receives a phone call from her; reminding her that she had told them both not to come back home.
A Priest visits the house and tells them that he had visited their Mother many times and that she had confided in him regarding the sinister entity that she believed to be incessantly hounding the household.
An altercation ensues between them whereby the siblings refute the Priests claims that their Mother was religious and the Priest subsequently leaves.
Later he is seen outside the house; but it's another creepy copy of him with deathly white skin and inhuman eyes.
He goads them to come outside but they know it isn't the real Priest and tell him to go away, before he vanishes.
The next day, still reeling from the previous nights events, Louise phones the Priest; using the contact number he had given her during his visit.
He is baffled. He's never heard of her or her Mother and claims that he has never visited Texas. Louise ends the call feeling shocked and confused.
Thinking that they can no longer keep their Father safe at home, they contact a local Doctor and request that he may be taken in to hospital where he can spend his last days in a safer environment.
Not understanding the full severity of the situation, the Doctor advises that he would more than likely not survive the transfer as he was far too weak to move.
That night they make the grim discovery that virtually their whole herd of goats has been massacred in a bloodied frenzy.
Whilst asleep beside her Father, Louise hears the all too familiar creak of old floorboards and paralyses with fear.
She feels something climb upon the bed, breathing heavily in a distorted fashion that clearly is not of this world.
Plucking up the courage to confront the entity, she turns around sharply but is relieved to see nothing. But from above her she sees her Father looking down from the ceiling with a pleading hand outstretched towards her as if to yearn for her help.
Upon awakening the next morning, Louise realises that her Brother has left.
Feeling abandoned, she calls him for an explanation.
He admits that he cannot cope with the constant fear of the situation and is returning home to his own family and that she should leave too in order to save herself.
Upset that he has left her, she abruptly ends the call, then she hears screaming.
She finds the Nurse in her Fathers bedroom crazily stabbing herself with a pair of knitting needles.
She grabs Louise and bashes her head on the wall sending her unconscious.
The Nurse ends up stabbing herself in the eyeballs and with blood pouring down her face, slumps to the floor and to her death.
Meanwhile, Michael reaches the sanctity of his home.
However, upon entry, he finds his Wife and two Daughters dead. The scene depicts a murder/suicide, with his Wife still wielding the weapon between her bloodied stiff fingers.
Overcome with grief he concludes to take his own life but as soon as he does, he realises that it was all just a vision.
He falls to the floor just before his family return home.
Back at the farmhouse, Louise comes to and hears her Fathers extremely laboured breathing. She makes her way back to his side, not wanting him to be alone during his death.
He closes his eyes and stops breathing. An emotional Louise lays beside him in the dark room.
The movie ends as she hears her Mothers singing coming from another room just as her Dads eyes reopen and he viciously grabs her.
I had high hopes for his movie but for some reason it didn't quite reach them.
The storyline was good and the acting was superb, however there was something missing regarding the 'scary' in this. The score was brilliant at creating tension and emotion although sometimes it was mainly the sound that produced the fear and not the actual scenes.
There was definitely some good jump scares but the general effectiveness of giving me spine chills or leaving me gripped in fear remained lacking.
Overall I enjoyed this movie but I wouldn't class it as the most terrifying that I have watched before and I feel that there was opportunity for more gore and intensity within some scenes and the movie throughout.
Horror is one of my favourite genres, alongside sci fi, so maybe I have just become desensitized but I can't help feeling a tinge of disappointment with this one.
Movie Monkey Rating: 3.5
