Dark Nature

I had never actually heard about this 2022 horror movie "Dark Nature" prior to sitting down in 2023 and watching it. All that I knew here was that it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen. And thus, of course I opted to give it a viewing.

Writers Berkley Brady and Tim Cairo put together a rather bland storyline. Sure, there were some nice enough aspects in the movie here and there throughout the course of the 85 minutes that the movie ran for. But ultimately, I have to say that the storyline in the movie felt rather pointless and without any actual meaningful contents. And that made it a somewhat dull viewing experience.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but they actresses and actors put on fair enough performances, though they had only so much to work with in terms of script and storyline.

Visually then "Dark Nature" was adequate. It was a not a movie that made a whole lot use of special effects to bring its storyline to the screen. The creature design was interesting enough, though I have honestly no clue as to what that creature was supposed to be.

Suitable for a single viewing, "Dark Nature" wasn't really all that impressive. And it is not a movie that I will be recommending for horror fans to rush out and get to watch. Nor is it a movie that I will ever pick up and watch a second time.

My rating of director Berkley Brady's 2022 movie lands on a four out of ten stars.

A trauma therapy group follows their quack doctor into the Canadian wilderness on a survivalist excursion for which none of them are remotely qualified. It's unclear what the point of the excursion is supposed to be since the doctor's explanations are pop psychobabble gibberish. The characters' lack of preparedness or an objective helps explain their subsequent bickering, complaining and idiotic decisions; but it also makes them frustratingly unsympathetic. Suffice it to say the gang of intrepid idiots soon find themselves isolated and stalked by a standard horror trope until the rushed and inevitable finale. The Ritual (2017) wasn't great but it did essentially the same thing first, better and with more relatable characters.

This was an interesting mix of folk horror and creature feature as an almost cautionary tale about facing your demons and overcoming past traumas. It had some solid potential however because of some missteps in execution, landed pretty middle of the road for me.

I thought the plot/concept was really interesting and was a foundation for something relatively different and pretty cool. They ended up negating a lot of their spook factor and intrigue by showing the "antagonist" like... WAY early and pretty much in full form. 25% of the time it was shown it looked creepy and dope. The other 75% it looked quite silly and drew me out of the moment. Regardless, there was still some pretty dope execution of sfx/makeup throughout.

The two lead best friends were quite good and really kept me in the moment and engaged. The doctor was good and everyone else was on the not so convincing side.

I do think they could have beefed up the story a bit more. Felt a little bit like a very long proof of concept. Despite this, as a whole I think this was pretty successful and certainly not a waste of time. Would recommend.

This doesn't really succeed in any of the points it is trying to make.

It is not a good drama, because characters are not really explored.

It is not a good horror, because the creators didn't learn properly from 'Descent'.

It's obviously had potential, but eventually fell flat.

Even though creature is explained in bits and pieces, it's not really a good explanation.

The buildup is weak.

Indeed, the whole thing feels a bit pointless.

Overall, the movie is pretty simple and straightforward, in case you wondering to watch it or not, I must say that there are no interesting turns or unexpected occurrences.

I cannot say I enjoyed it. I was waiting for something to happen, waiting for movie to bloom, but it does not live up to any good expectations.

The basics are there, you can watch it before falling asleep, surely, but it won't be a movie to remember.

Acting was good, not amateur. Stoty was compelling enough to watch till the end. Kudos to the actors who performed in obviously difficult circumstances. Not sure why the low ratings. This film rates well among similar survival, haunting scenarios. Somewhat a Blair Witch vibe, but with a satisfactory resolution. Some unresolved issues regarding the abusive husband's fate, but it doesn't detractfrom the whole survival story. Reminds me of another excellent similar film, The Ritual, which i highly recommend. The actors in this film did a great job, also the director writer. I would say stick with watching it.