The Dark and the Wicked (2020)

Roger Ebert once said, "It's not what a film is about, but how it is about it." I had to take that into consideration when rating and reviewing 'The Dark and the Wicked'. This is admittedly not my type of horror movie. I struggle with supernatural horror, because I have zero belief in it and thus it does nothing to unsettle me. However, I have to admit that this film was done very well, and that if I were unsettled by those types of films then this one would have done the trick for me. This film is going up some people's alleys big time.

This is such a beautifully shot film. Director Bryan Bertino is so good at framing what is on screen, he doesn't even need what's on screen to be all that impressive for it to look good. I also love the inventive camera angles he comes up with. They don't always work to heighten the scares or even the tension, but they add a touch of class to the mix which is so often missing in the horror genre.

My biggest gripe with the film would be all the jump-scares and the scenes where the demon is basically just trying to scare the characters rather than harm them. I understand why they have to be there to pad the runtime to 90 minutes, but they are still very frustrating to watch. I also didn't really connect with either of the two lead characters. They were very flat (understandable in their situation to be fair) and that made it difficult for me to care all that much about their fate. The final 20-30 minutes of this film is an absolute blast though I'd have to say. The pacing rockets to life and there are some fun and pretty messed up scenes. 'The Dark and the Wicked' is worth a watch.

Fmovies: Well worth the watch, in the dark, with the sound cranked. Oscar nod for sound editing - my ****!!! Dont believe any hate...

LONG time since a movie invoked unbridled, white knuckle terror.

Solid 7.5/10 from this guy. Whew

I was excited to check out Bryan Bertino's latest offering, "The Dark and the WIcked." His debut, "The Strangers," was an instant classic introducing masked home invaders in the most unsettling of ways. His followup, "The Monster," was well-crafted as an estranged mother and daughter get stranded in their car in the woods while being stalked by a monster.

It was ultimately disappointing as there was nothing to connect the disparate creepy happenings to the story-line.

Many movies try to tease the viewer with unreliable narrators, leaving them to ponder whether what is happening is supernatural or all in the characters head. "The Babadook," "Black Swan," and "The Lighthouse" are examples of movies that do this right. Unfortunately, this doesn't.

It's clearly something supernatural haunting everybody, but beyond some disturbing and/or violent scenes (all of which are well done), the movie is just too ambiguous in a very frustrating way.

The Dark and the Wicked fmovies. There was a lot of good to this movie; dreadful, grim atmosphere combined with genuine scares. Not cheap jump scares. It really portrayed the psychological effects of supernatural oppression in a realistic way. Far away camera shots and excellent production quality. Actors were solid. A few scenes with implied horror, which was done very well.

Unfortunately, all that does not make a great horror movie. The storyline still has to be coherent. Too much ambiguity and too many question marks with this one. I did not understand the ending. When there's too much ambiguity, a movie can come off as pretentious and trying too hard.

A solid effort for sure but came apart at the seams.

Please don't waste your time on this... this movie is ridiculously boring. I bought this movie for 5$ because of all of the positive reviews that compared this film to Ari Aster's 'Hereditary.' This movie is nowhere nearly as creepy/unsettling and there's basically no storyline. It maybe could have saved itself by having a twisted ending but instead, the end scene sucked even more that I could have imagined. I enjoy GOOD slow burner horrors/thrillers, but this was just slow without any reward. Do not spend money on this.

The movie is scary as hell and terrifying but then to find out it was for nothing?!!!!!

NO PLOT OR BACKSTORY. NO REASON FOR WHY THIS IS HAPPENING. Its like a movie that wants to scare you and it does but there is absolutely no reason or logic why things are happening the way it is.

The two siblings start acting and doing stupid things and then the last 5 second was even as bizarre as it gets.

At least throw in a history of the farm or the father's past to let us know why events unfolded as it did. Sorry but 1 star out of 10 for story. For scares it is a 8 out of 10. But I cannot for life of me know why director or writer did not add a solid backstory and explanation to movie or as to why it went down like this