DARK LIGHT is a new horror sci-fi movie on Netflix. It has some impressive practical effects but the story is severely lacking. With a crisp 90 minute runtime, it should not feel this long. Read more in our full Dark Light review and check it out on Netflix now!
Dark Light is a new movie on Netflix in the horror, sci-fi and thriller genres. The opening scene is pretty good, but it doesn’t get better from there. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
The final 15-20 minutes feels like running in circles and it’s just a damn shame. Production quality is good, but the story is so bad that even the actors look like amateurs. However, please don’t hate on the actors in this. Working with this story (and some horribly stiff dialogue) cannot have been easy.
Continue reading our Dark Light review below.
Jessica Madsen and Opal Littleton star
The story of Dark Light revolves mostly around the characters portrayed by Jessica Madsen and Opal Littleton. The two are mother and daughter. If you were ever in doubt of this fact, you will soon be reminded. Only very few of the lines spoken by Opal Littleton do not end in the word “mommy”. It is unnerving!
But, I repeat, do not blame the actors for this. You can almost see how terrible this dialogue must look on paper and it does not get better when spoken out loud.
Jessica Madsen does what she can as the mother fighting for her daughter, but it’s an uphill battle with this script. Also, you should recognize Jessica Madsen from the 2017 Leatherface movie.
You might like: Our review of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel Leatherface here >
She was damn cool in Leatherface, which is extremely fortunate right now. After watching Jessica Madsen in Dark Light you would not be impressed. I mean, she’s cool and all in this movie as well. It’s just that the lines and actions of her character tend to be rather weird and nonsensical.
A stereotypical horror girl
If Opal Littleton looks familiar, it might be because you’ve seen the first episode of the reality horror series Prank Encounters on Netflix.
Recommended reading: You can read our review of Prank Encounters on Netflix here >
Opal Littleton was the star of Prank Encounters episode 1 and looks exactly the same in Dark Light. It made sense in the Netflix reality horror spoof show, but in this movie, it seems ridiculous. She looks like a cookie-cutter horror girl that’s been cut from precisely the same mold as Carol Anne in Poltergeist. No, it’s not cute or an “homage”, it’s just lazy!
The one exception in terms of being too square and predictable a character is that of Sheriff Dickerson.
She is portrayed by Kristina Clifford, who manages to get away with almost everything and seem believable. Okay, her last scene isn’t impressive, but (again) I blame the script and not her acting. Kristina Clifford is the one actor who can walk away from this mess happy! She’s also in the horror-comedy Butt Boy which will be out soon.
Watch Dark Light on Netflix now!
Padraig Reynolds wrote and directed Dark Light and his movies seem to all land around a 4-4.5 rating on IMDb. I don’t know that this is fair for all of them, but for Dark Light, it’s pretty accurate.
Previously, Padraig Reynolds has written and directed the movie Rites of Spring (2011). He also directed Worry Dolls from 2016, which he did not write. Basically, I just want to state that Padraig Reynolds has years of experience which is why I don’t understand his latest movie.
I feel like Dark Light could have been a lot better. There’s just so damn much that doesn’t make sense. At all. The practical effects and the look of the actual monsters are very cool. It makes no sense in terms of details of the story, but it looks good. And maybe that’s where the problem is; It’s all about form and not so much about content.
If the monsters weren’t so well made, this movie would have gotten a 1-star rating…
Dark Light is out on Netflix in the US from April 5, 2020. It should also be out in Canada and the UK now.
Details
Director: Padraig Reynolds
Writer: Padraig Reynolds
Stars: Jessica Madsen, Opal Littleton, Ed Brody, Kristina Clifford, Gerald Tyler, Ben Sullivan
Plot of Dark Light
Implicated in her daughter’s disappearance, a mother searches for answers when she returns to an old family home that may have an unwanted visitor.
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