Unnerving Dark Touch a Psychological Terror
Neve’s (Missy Keating) parents are dead. So is her infant brother. There was a horrific fire that left her home gutted. Her mom and dad were mauled, seemingly by everyday household items, long before the flames could do their work on them. Police are certain invaders must have attacked the family, ransacked the house before lighting it ablaze. But Neve refuses to confirm these assumptions, stating instead it was the house itself that came alive and brutally assaulted them.
PHOTO: IFC Films
She is taken in by Nat (Marcella Plunkett) and Lucas Galin (Padraic Delaney), good friends of her deceased parents. They have two young children of their own whom they dote on. At the same time, they are suffering a not-so-secret trauma due to the recent death of their eldest girl, practically the same age as Neve, the cause of which they’d rather not discuss with anyone, let alone this traumatized child who has just come into their lives.
It’s best not to know a lot about what’s going on or what is going to happen in regards to the bleak, violent and at times eerily haunting Dark Touch, the mystery as to what actually happened to Neve’s family not so much a surprise as it is an unsettling inhuman puzzle worth the time it takes to solve. This is a deep, uncomfortably unsettling drama masquerading as supernatural-tinged horror movie, comparisons to films like Carrie and The Omen appropriate if still not altogether accurate.
Does it work? Not entirely. Writer/director Marina de Van (Don’t Look Back) doesn’t keep all of her disparate tangents in focus, losing sight at times of where it is she wants to go and how it is she wants to get there. The climactic moments are suitably chilling, the aftereffects of choices made by Neve, Nat and several others having unspeakable repercussions that ran my blood cold. But the reasons behind the mayhem? How central decisions are come to and how absolute evil is embraced? That’s never as clear as I think de Van intends it to be, all of this somewhat lessening the ultimate impact of the closing scenes to a point where they’re more bewildering than they are uncomforting or horrifying.
That doesn’t mean I wasn’t still enthralled by much of what the filmmaker had crafted. Neve’s introspective decompression is a descent into a surreal rabbit hole of fear, loathing, rage and abuse, making her reticence to accept help from the seemingly caring adults around her easy to comprehend. More, de Van keeps the reasons behind all of the supernatural mayhem close to the vest, not explaining any of what is happening until the last possible second.
The movie is marvelously shot by John Conroy (Weekender), the cinematographer reveling in all the dank corners, shimmering street lights, empty school hallways and claustrophobic bedroom interiors. It is also marvelously edited by Mike Fromentin (Lemming) and deliciously scored by newcomer Christophe Chassol, the hypnotic spell these technical aspects cast spellbinding. As for de Van, she utilizes all of their talents with confident precision, maintaining razor-sharp focus while at the same time refusing to allow unimportant subplots to steal even a miniscule portion of the spotlight.
PHOTO: IFC Films
All of this anchored by Keating, the adolescent actress delivering a forceful, frighteningly interior performance oozing in pain, suffering and vitriol. She doesn’t like what’s been done to her but is deeply terrified of the demons that might be released if she were to fight back, not understanding the breadth of her own power until it borders on being too late to do anything about it. Keating centralizes this emotional battle for control of her psyche with shocking savagery, her final choices becoming all the more powerful because of this.
If it all doesn’t work out as well as de Van likely intends it to, that doesn’t make much of what transpires over the film’s 90 minutes any less impressive. While not the psychologically disturbing stunner it’s always on the verge of becoming, Dark Touch still has plenty on its mind that’s worthy of discussion, the inhumane horrors at its core so deeply personal and all-encompassing the supernatural aspects augmenting them aren’t even necessary.
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
