Darklands

While I had not heard about this 2022 thriller titled "Darklands" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2025, of course I opted to check it out. I do believe in giving all movies a fair chance.

However, writer Christopher Gist penned together a script that was not only incredibly slow paced, but also rather uneventful and downright boring. 45 minutes into the 104 minute runtime and it felt like I had already sat through 90 minutes. And I was good and ready to call it quits, because there had been absolutely nothing worthwhile or interesting happening on the screen.

I was not familiar with a single actress or actors on the cast list, and that was actually the only thing that "Darklands" had working for it, as I do enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen. But the actresses and actors stood a snowballs chance in Hell here, because they virtually had nothing to work with.

As for "Darklands" being a thriller? Well, not really. It was a sluggish drama without any proper contents.

Let me just save you the trouble of wasting 104 minutes on watching director Scott Major's 2022 movie "Darklands"; don't. The movie is not worth the effort.

My rating of "Darklands" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

That's what the message this film delivers to the audience that don't do to others what you don't want.

This is a good movie which succeed at all levels. The acting from all star cast is good. Also the direction is as per the pace. Story revolves around police officer who failed to act during school shooting and journalist follows this story to get an interview. There are few twist and turns which the audience wouldn't mind. Cinematography is wonderful. From start to end you keep guessing how much victim will suffer. In the end you will not able to come to terms on who is actually a victim and an accused.

Minor quibbles aside, about half way through Darklands this tense thriller felt set to reside alongside one of those underrated Australian noir classics such as Kiss or Kill or The Square. A 9/10 even.

Sadly an engaging commentary on gutter journalism, morality and greed in the face of tragedy took a turn so dark it was pitch black with no sliver of light to illuminate either of the two deeply flawed female protagonists.

Any sympathy remained with their innocent victims. Albeit, their suffering played second fiddle.

That said, the direction, acting (props to Nadine Garner) and cinematography were first class throughout and Darklands does enough to hold you until the end. Just a shame it went down the Wolf Creek road rather than a more poignant one.

The plot sounded ok but this movie was not well executed. I would not recommend this to anyone. The movie starts out ok and you begin to think how will this all pan out. We'll I didn't expect it would pan out the way it did. An unrealistic exaggerated over acted waste of time. In the beginning you have some sympathy for the officer and from the start you do not like the cold hearted approach of the journalist. By the end you dislike both of them and just wish they take each other out. I had to fast forward some of this movie which is never a good sign......it was just too painful to watch. I love Australian movies but this is not one that I will recommend.