The Dark and the Wicked

Happy Halloween everyone! We made it! I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to read, watch and comment on the 31 movies I reviewed this month. You have a very special place in my heart! This year we had pretty high highs and an extremely low low. I've gotten lucky the past few years ending the year on the scariest movie I watched all month, and thankfully this is no exception. For Halloween I watched...

The Dark and the Wicked (2020)

This movie is scary! It's probably the scariest since I watched Host a few years back. So here's the story; a brother and sister return to their family home in Thurber, Texas to help out their mother. Their dad is in the final stages of a chronic illness and doesn't have long to live. When they get there, their mom seems unhappy that they showed up, telling them they shouldn't have come and that they should leave. They think it's just a matter of the stress getting to their mother and they're determined to stay. But one night she ends up slicing off her fingers and they find her the next morning hanged in the barn. After taking in their situation and seeing no stool or step around, they realize there's no way she could have done it herself.

Over the next few days, they start to realize something's off. Through conversations with the father's nurse, reading the mom's diary and other spooky goings on, they begin to understand what they're dealing with and it's way beyond them. The two wrestle with staying to help their father in his dying days or abandoning him to try and save themselves.

It doesn't sound like much, but it does a lot with the premise. The demon has a lot of power and gets stronger as the movie goes on. I've complained in the past about the antagonist being too OP, but I didn't mind it in this movie because of the way it uses its powers. You don't realize exactly how screwed these people were the entire time until the credits roll. Not only that, it uses the power in varied ways and uses them for maximum spookiness. For instance, the scariest thing in the movie is the scene involving a priest, played by the always-welcome Xander Berkeley, (George Mason from "24.") He shows up to talk to the brother and sister, and one of them says they don't believe in God. The priest kind of shrugs it off saying, "You think a wolf cares if you believe if you believe he's a wolf?"

Before they kick him out, the brother asks him if he really thinks the devil is out there. The priest asks if they think their mother is crazy because she saw a wolf. He warns them that the devil is not out there, he's already here. It's a pretty chilling conversation but it's played straight, it's just a conversation. It gets even better later in the movie. He shows up again at 3:00 AM. He doesn't say much, he stands there, shrouded in shadow telling them to come outside. He then asks them if they want some rope, referencing how their mother died. The sister shines the flashlight on his face revealing all white eyes. It's so unnerving and genuinely scary.

That's not all! The next day she calls the priest using the number he gave her. The priest is confused saying he's in Virginia. He goes on to say that he's never even been to Texas in his life. You realize every time they saw that priest, it was the demon in disguise. The demon showed up, came into their home and warned them how screwed they were just because it could. It's so good!

There are jump scares, but they're all earned. I've never seen a movie that works towards every scare. They aren't there just for fun, each one is built up to. Not only that, each one is better than the last. One of the reasons I started doing my reviews all those years ago was that I missed being scared by movies. It happens so seldom that when a movie genuinely scares me, it makes me so happy. Everything in this movie just ratchets up the tension until it reaches the boiling point. There are so many good moments that it doesn't need to rely on jump scares. Even when you think something may be going their way, or there's a person who may be able to help, the movie says "Nope!" and you get a good glimpse of how powerful this thing is.

It doesn't tread new ground, a lot of the scares are similar to things you've seen in other movies, but they are all used at exactly the right time. It's kind of like watching Greg Maddux pitch. He's not going to blow you away with his fastball, but it's his ability to change speeds and perfectly locate his pitches for maximum effect. That's what this movie does, it's not just throwing gas, it keeps you off balance and guessing so when the payoff comes it lands beautifully.

If I had one complaint, and it's a small one, I don't quite understand this thing's power limit. It has shown the ability to kill people pretty easily, but for some reason can't get the comatose father until he's dead. It didn't quite explain very well why it could flex on other people but had to play the waiting game with the dying father. Still, I thought this was fantastic.