Mr. Mike Stec has some words about The Dark Place.
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| "Ahhhh....a comforting coat before a really bad movie...." |
The worst sin that a movie or really any form of
entertainment can commit is simply being dull.
This is not the same as being bad; there is plenty of entertainment to
be found in "bad" movies. Some
bad films like The Room or Birdemic can even be elevated to cult
classics, beloved by film masochists who can't resist the lure of earnest
failure. But there are many films that
simply have nothing interesting to offer.
They're not bad because they're obviously poorly made (though it's
entirely possible that they are), they're just disinteresting on numerous
levels. The Dark Place is just
such a film.
The Dark Place lures you in with its title, leading
you to believe that maybe it could be an interesting psychological thriller or
a halfway decent B-horror flick. This is
unfortunately a far better deception than any of the so-called
"twists" in the film. The
Dark Place is the story of Keegan Dark (see what they did there?), a young
man with a troubled past who returns home to his estranged family only to end
up entangled in a web of secrets and deception.
if it sounds like a mediocre Lifetime movie, that's because that's
basically what this is.
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| "Let me end your suffering." |
Literally the only difference between this film and said
Lifetime movie is the fact that Keegan and several other lead characters are
gay. In the film this plays as more of a
creative choice by writer/director Jody Wheeler than anything vital to the
plot. It's actually fairly refreshing to
see gay characters who are not fully defined by their sexuality or used as a
gimmick, and other than a couple of gratuitous but non-graphic sex scenes
little or no importance is put on it.
Unfortunately, the characters are hollow TV movie stereotypes, so it turns
out that being gay actually is the most interesting thing about them. The acting and dialogue really aren't bad per
se, in a sense that they're poorly acted or written, they're just kind of there
in service to a mediocre story. The
"twists" are not so much shocking as they are kind of flat and even
kind of expected. Even the one
interesting thing the film has going for it, Keegan's photographic memory, is
underutilized to the point of mainly just serving as a guide to the bewildered
viewer to make sure they're still following along.
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It's rare to see a film that literally has nothing to offer,
but The Dark Place achieves this.
It wastes every opportunity it has to do something clever or innovative
and instead churns out a generic TV movie with little or no redeeming
value. There's honestly nothing
esthetically bad about the film, nor really anything truly good. All that The Dark Place is is the
worst a movie can possibly be: dull.
Score
