The Dark and the Wicked

I’ll admit that I haven’t seen either of the other two films Bryan Bertino has directed since his breakout hit, The Strangers — but if The Dark and the Wicked is any indication, this is a mistake I’ll have to rectify ASAP. About a brother and sister who return to the family farm to be with their dying father, where it quickly becomes apparent that something sinister is afoot, the film takes a familiar premise and does something special with it. Bertino has absolutely no interest in reinventing the wheel here; the haunted house spookiness he provides is something you’ve likely seen many, many times before. But when the film is this skillfully made, does it matter? The shaky-cam aesthetic from The Strangers has been replaced with a more traditionally cinematic look (the handsome widescreen cinematography feels somewhat John Carpenter-esque), which is a clear upgrade. There’s also an impressive amount of simmering slow-burn tension, not to mention a handful of memorable, legitimately creepy set-pieces. The film isn’t perfect; I’m not sure that the characters are quite strong enough to make the fairly low-key first twenty minutes or so fully work (it doesn’t help that the mumbly Southern accents are occasionally a bit hard to understand). But once the film starts cooking, it really starts cooking. Bertino sure knows how to craft a spooky set-piece, that’s for sure.

***1/2 out of ****