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Susan has been
suffering from horrible nightmares as
of recently where she's stalked by a madman known as
the night stalker. She assumes that it's probably
just the nerves since she's currently trying to have
a baby with her boyfriend, plus the fact that there
really is a killer on the loose in town. But why
do the nightmares feel so real? And why would the
night stalker be out to get her?
Dark Corners is a fantastic movie ruined by an
ending that tries to be clever, but really doesn't
explain anything at all. For that I'm giving it
the rating of 3/5 even if the rest of the movie
deserves 4/5. Why I'm telling you this? Because
before I go deeper into analyzing this movie I have
to clarify why I'm probably going to sound very
positive towards it.
I remember seeing a clip from this horror thriller
a while ago where Thora Birch plays two different
characters - one in the real world and one in a
dream world (and yes, it is indeed confusing).
I wasn't very impressed by the clip and figured
that I should probably just skip this movie. Well
I'm kind of glad that I didn't. Let me try to
explain a little further just what the movie's about.
Susan Hamilton has the perfect life. She's got a
decent job, good friends, a boyfriend that loves
her and since she's unable to become pregnant, she's
going to try to become pregnant through a fertilization
process of some kind (I'm no doctor, don't make me
try to remember what the process was called). Soon
enough her perfect life is turned upside down as
she begins to have horrible nightmares where she
lives in a dump and works at a mortuary (none of
this makes sense in the ending). As if that wasn't
enough, her nightmare character is stalked by a
serial killer known as the night stalker.
What makes Dark Corners so interesting is that you're
never sure when Susan's really awake. You don't
know whether she's the character in the nightmare
or herself. Maybe the nightmare character is just
dreaming about Susan. I can imagine that both of
these parts were a challenge for Thora Birch but she
gives us two brilliant performances and really pulls
it off, which is another reason to love this movie.
If you've seen the same clip that I saw, you probably
got the idea that this is a low-budget movie. Well,
even if it probably is, it doesn't look it. It's
nicely shot with radiant colours and crisp, clean
picture. This really had everything going for it.
It has a great and original story, talented actors,
a director who clearly knows what he's doing and
overall a great setup. But when the time comes to
explain what's really going on - and believe me,
I sat and thought through several plausible
conclusions that would have made everything make
sense - they throw a clichéd twist at us that
explains absolutely nothing.
When the movie was finally over I had very mixed
feelings. Sure, it provided me with over an hour
of pure, fresh entertainment but it also pissed me
off by trying to cheat the viewer. Because let's
face it, when they don't explain movies in the end
that so desperately need to be explained, they
cheat the viewer. I'm pissed off but don't let that
stop you from checking this movie out because as
I said before, the first 80 minutes or so are great.
Just make sure you turn the movie off 5 minutes
before it ends and then make up your own ending.
A slit throat, a couple of gory bodies and some more.
Great stuff here. A very mysterious score that
feels just as fresh as the movie.
I don't really know what to say here. My feelings
towards this movie are just too mixed. I say watch
this movie, because it is indeed a great movie, and
then turn it off before it ends and make up your
own ending instead, that way everyone will be pleased.
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