Dark Sister

Director Alex Proyas has not lost his visual edge. He has created an atmospheric, gothic tale. The unfortunate part is how predictable the tale is.

Lauren Grimsom does a great job in the lead roles. Dual roles are always risky, but she is able to give soul to both characters.

Although the AI set pieces are somewhat distracting, this short is still worth a view for the mood and the acting, especially if you are a fan of gothic ghost stories. Proyas does a good job with the script and the editing as well. He is also showing us all the future of AI filmmaking and how important the human aspect of it is.

I like the gothic atmosphere and the sense of mystery at the beginning of the movie. I also love the idea of connection. We wish we had learned more about the revenge. The husband's character is particularly intriguing, gentle yet resolute, as if hiding secrets and radiating an unusual energy in this place so far removed from any living soul. We are taken on a temporal and spiritual journey, suspended between dream and reality. And what does this unborn fruit truly contain? It certainly bears no promise of happiness, but rather a heavy burden of unknown fate and silent sorrows yet to unfold...

"Dark Sister" marks a triumphant return from Alex Proyas, wielding Gothic vengeance and spectral dread with surgical precision. Every frame drips with atmospheric tension-cinematography reminiscent of Proyas's unforgettable "The Crow" and "Dark City". The story of Alice and her sinister doppelganger Isla is a beautifully distilled fairy-nightmare: a short, sharp shock of supernatural reckoning. Virtual production brings immersive, hallucinatory visuals-dreamlike corridors, spectral edges-while the pacing never flags. Proyas crafts full-blooded emotional stakes in miniature form, proving once again he's a master of mood and myth. A short horror gem that lingers, unsettles, and stays with you long after the credits roll.

Top to bottom, it's a visceral, visual feast - an instant classic of Gothic short cinema.

The past year+ has been the return of Alex Proyas. Dark City and The Crow on 4K plus a remake that reinforces that you can't replace the original talent of one of the most iconic films of the 90's. And better, than all this, is discovering his newest film Dark Sister and watching the lore of his universe (ProyasVerse) continue to expand.

Not only does the actress, Lauren Grimson, play two roles that morph into one but Proyas, and his team, manage to morph two locations into one. The interior of the estate, with its gothic window frames that throw shadows onto the actors. To the exterior forest at night, with the bright lantern that bares a striking resemblance to those former panes of glass. Both actress and director want us to question the boundaries of what we are being shown.

On one level it's a simple story of a ghost possessing a woman. On another it's a complex tale of a traumatized woman, whose life was shattered years ago, and is now being confronted by her shadow self. Which one is it? That's the mastery. It's however you want to read it. And yet even if you read it straightforwardly you would still experience something narling at you, that, makes the film more terrifying than its more intellectual cinephile reading.

Look, like many people I know, I have little time for movies now. But this film, Dark Sister, makes me make time. And as I stated in the opening line, we are in a resurgence of the film director Alex Proyas and with such a talent at the helm I am extremely optimistic about the future of this industry and the future of cinema.