While driving through the forest to the isolated house of the lovers Callie (Ashley Judd) and Clay (Viggo Mortensen), the driver Jude (Loren Dean) finds a young man fainted on the road. He rescues the stranger and the sensual Callie welcomes him while Clay is retired in the woods. When he awakes, he tells his name, Darkly Noon (Brendan Fraser), and explains that his religious parents had been killed in their house by the furious locals and he had successfully escaped with his bible. Clay returns and accepts the presence of the new-comer in his house. Along the next days, Darkly becomes sexually obsessed by the sexy Callie and uses flagellation to punish himself for his desire. When the confused Darkly meets the deranged widow Roxy (Grace Zabriskie) in the woods, she tells him that Callie is a witch that killed her husband and that bewitches young men. When Roxy commits suicide, the insanity of the fanatic Darkly leads him to punish the sinners.
"The Passion of Darkly Noon" is another excellent and underrated movie of director Philip Ridley. I do not understand how this awesome director has only two movies in his filmography (the other is fantastic "The Reflecting Skin"). Today I have watched "The Passion of Darkly Noon" for the second time and this movie still very impressive. The story has drama, romance, eroticism and suspense, supported by magnificent direction, top-notch performances, beautiful landscapes and an awesome soundtrack. In 1995, Brendan Fraser proved for me that he is a great actor with his performance of a young man living in a conflictive situation between his religious credo and his carnal desire in spite of being miscast, since his character is a kid and Brendan was twenty-seven year-old in 1995, the same age of the sexy Ashley Judd (both were born in 1968). This gorgeous actress in her first lead role has an extremely sexy performance, with some of the hottest scenes of the cinema history with the great actor Viggo Mortensen. Unfortunately this disturbing movie is recommended for very specific audiences only. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Paixões na Floresta" ("Passions in the Forest")
