Dark Was the Night (2014)

In Madden Woods, Sheriff Paul Shields (Kevin Durand) is passing a difficult period of his life and is divorcing from his wife Susan (Bianca Kajlich) after the accidental death of their son Tim. Susan has moved to the house of her mother with their son Adam (Ethan Khusidman) that wants his parents together. When Paul and his partner Sheriff Donny Saunders (Lukas Haas), who has come from New York, are summoned by a horse breeder to investigate the disappearance of one horse, they believe that the man has forgotten the gate open. Soon they find strange footprints and they believe it is a prankster playing a prank on the population. But soon Paul realizes that something weird is unleashed in the town and the Indian bartender believes it is a Wendigo. Sheriff Shiels asks from support from the National Guard but a storm is coming and the troop will only arrive later. Will he be capable to protect the inhabitants with Donny from the evil that is coming?

"Dark Was the Night" is a suspenseful horror film, with good story and well developed characters. The story seems to be the conventional movie with happy ending until the unexpected final plot point that surprises any viewer. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not available on DVD or Blu-Ray

Fmovies: This is equal parts Drama and Horror.

The Beginning seems kind of slow and tedious, but if you're patient and in the right mood, then you settle in. Durand plays the Sheriff with deep emotional background, although it can seem a little heavy at first. And his deputy is a good balance of a lighter character with an Outside-Of-Town perspective. And the Monster is all in the build-up.

In some ways, this movie starts with the usual horror formula...except it's not a screamer/splatter. The Townspeople aren't a forgettable list of cardboard a-holes just lining up to be dragged off. It's ordinary people coming to realize that something dangerous has moved in with them...and now they're scared...and as a viewer, I found myself scared for them.

This ain't a blockbuster movie...but I rate it above the generic B-Grade cable fare because when you parse the plot, there's a lot of common sense logic involved in the sheriff and the town trying to figure out what's happening. And the acting is solid and believable all around.

This one is best for classic After-12 Midnight viewing on a Saturday night. Even better if it's raining or snowing outside.

I really enjoyed this movie. I wouldn't exactly call this a horror movie. Suspenseful thriller yes. The acting and storyline solid.

Dark Was the Night fmovies. When you watch a lot of low budget horror you automatically lower your expectations (watching 'panic button' while writing this, and that is truly dreadful!), however I found Dark is the Night to be one of the better films I've seen recently.

There's nothing new in the concept; a remote American town, monster in the woods, people and animals disappearing - in some cases without trace.

The suspense and characters build nicely through the film, with odd glimpses of the monster as we go. Kevin Durand was especially good, but all the actors did a great job.

The film could be better again if two things could have been addressed; firstly it's ridiculous that the monster kills pretty much whatever is in it's sights however on the more than one occasion that it encounters the sheriff and/or his deputy it runs away - especially bizarre in the scene where the sheriff stops for the dead deer in the middle of the night when he could easily have been killed.

And secondly, as others have mentioned, the ending where the creature is revealed which was so bad it almost reminded me of Ray Harryhausen style stop-motion effects.

If you can get past those two things though, it's a good watch (unlike this awful Panic Button film)

I often watch indie horror/slasher films, but they usually suck. This one, thankfully, did not. They say you have to watch a ton of bad horror films to find a good one. I guess I'll be watching a lot more bad ones to find one to stand up to this one.

The screenwriter actually gave these characters a background and a reason to care about them, rather than letting them only be known for getting chewed up and spit out. The storyline wasn't flooded with action to make you forget the screenwriter(s) didn't put anytime into developing the characters Kevin Durant (Lost, The Strain, I Am Number 4, etc.,) is a good actor. I never saw him as the lead actor before, but I hope they take advantage of his talent. He was believable in the role.

The creature was only fully shown towards the end of the movie. They should've shown it more, because it didn't look stupid. It was actually rather inventive how they made it look.

The storyline was fun. The atmosphere of a small town miles away from anyplace is always a turn on for me, but many horror movies don't do a good job with that. This one did.

I approve of this movie. I recommend it to anyone who likes creature features. It's not Jaws, but what is? One thing I didn't like was the lack of consistency with the monster towards the sheriff as opposed to how it behaved with others. It had no problem attacking people in daylight or night. However, the sheriff came across it a few times, and it played hide-and-seek with him, not killing the guy when it had a clear shot of doing it every time.

I gave this a 7-star rating. Enjoy! I did :)

Up until the closing scenes Dark Was the Night is reminiscent of any number of films by director M. Night Shyamalan.

A strong sense of foreboding and tension is established early in this film. The source of the terror that infects a US country town is hinted at and glimpsed but never fully revealed, until the final scenes.

As a result, Dark Was the Night could be described as somewhat slow by some but that was not what I took away from this story. Its well acted, with a solid sub plot and good character development, that moves the story forward.

The ending is somewhat predictable, as is the final twist but that really doesn't detract greatly from what is a worth while watch. Seven out of ten from me.