An engaging teen thriller from 2017. When a pair of high schoolers meet a third friend things go from playful to deadly when a samurai sword is introduced. The sword, belonging to one of the friends' brother, played by Charlie Tahan (he played Zac Efron's brother in Charlie St. Cloud), is brought out to a forest clearing for the kids to play around with (under Tahan's protestations), the usual game of 'let me see it' gets one of the friends killed but instead of calling the authorities, they leave the sword & body behind & try to put the tragedy behind them but when the dead boy's parents start to query as to his disappearance, Tahan & his best friend, played by Owen Campbell, soon drift apart trying to maintain a shaky normalcy (especially w/Campbell attending to a crush, played by Elizabeth Cappuccino). When Tahan's demeanor soon changes (normally he'd be more of introvert but all of sudden he shows up plying drugs at a party) & another classmate is found dead (from an apparent suicide from a fall from a bridge) Campbell doesn't buy it. Haunted by nightmares due to certain facts not adding up, Campbell discovers the sword & body have gone missing which as the last third of the film gets underway, friends now enemies must clash. Borrowing themes & plot details from movies like River's Edge & Mean Creek, Times uses its meager budget & no name cast to its advantage getting great perfs from the mostly unknowns while also evoking a great milieu of bored suburbanites getting in trouble & finding themselves way over their heads. Also starring Amy Hargreaves (she played Dylan Minnette's mom on 13 Reasons Why) as Campbell's mother.
Review of Super Dark Times
