Haven't we seen this film before? FROM THE DARK has almost exactly the same set-up as the overrated IN FEAR, in which a young and bickering couple get lost in the Irish countryside and come up against something or somebody nasty. Thankfully, FROM THE DARK has supernatural elements and is thus interesting because of that, and better than IN FEAR, although it's still not a good film.
The problem with these lo-fi movies is that anybody can make them, they're that cheap. Grab a video camera and go out for a drive in your car - you've got a film. Thus, I think the script and direction have to be really special to make films like this work, and they're not that special here. FROM THE DARK feels like it wants to be a found footage type film, with lots of shaky-cam work all the while, but what it is is dull.
The script is the culprit here, failing to garner interest by keeping the foe in the shadows for 90% of the running time, and muddling the scenes when it is in the foreground. The opening scene, which brought to mind BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, was the best part for me. For most of the time we're stuck with annoying and/or whiny characters that the actors can do nothing with. The last third of the film feels particularly repetitive and uninteresting, a low stakes game where the viewer doesn't really care what happens.
The problem with these lo-fi movies is that anybody can make them, they're that cheap. Grab a video camera and go out for a drive in your car - you've got a film. Thus, I think the script and direction have to be really special to make films like this work, and they're not that special here. FROM THE DARK feels like it wants to be a found footage type film, with lots of shaky-cam work all the while, but what it is is dull.
The script is the culprit here, failing to garner interest by keeping the foe in the shadows for 90% of the running time, and muddling the scenes when it is in the foreground. The opening scene, which brought to mind BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, was the best part for me. For most of the time we're stuck with annoying and/or whiny characters that the actors can do nothing with. The last third of the film feels particularly repetitive and uninteresting, a low stakes game where the viewer doesn't really care what happens.