Out of the Dark

This struggle to save their child is boring, and it's incredibly straightforward boredom. The bad guy is supposed to be punished, so it's clear how it will end, although maybe some feelings of guilt will awaken within him. The parents will try to save the child, they'll hurt themselves a bit in the process, they'll foolishly look into strange places, but there's a high probability that it will end well. Considering the caliber of the actors involved, this is simply laziness. (04.09.2016)

This comment will include a fairly major spoiler, so before watching this film, you’ll have to make do with the fact that Out of the Dark is a skilfully shot and an at times pleasantly atmospheric horror-mystery snack. If you fancy an undemanding genre exercise that will stick to the clichés no matter what, and will do exactly what is expected from it, then this one’s not a bad choice. The ghosts of the aboriginal children are scary (though we don’t get see them too often), the setting in a Colombian small town is nicely exotic, and the haunted villa is quite pretty. It’s a pity that the creators committed one of the biggest fuck-ups that can be committed in an unambitious horror flick – in the middle the story, in fact, even before the “tense” climax – to reveal that the presumed evil isn’t so evil after all. How am I, the viewer, supposed to deal with that? The fear and tension have gone to the shitter, I won’t philosophise about it because the film so far didn’t tune me on the wave of relativistic art, and I won’t be affected, either. The film started so nicely, and equally nicely it fell apart. (14.01.2015)