‘Dark Windows’ is Formulaic and Dull [Review]
Since Hereditary, grief and loss have become staple themes of horror filmmaking. A handful of creators have made some really impressive statements using those thematic elements. But many more have failed to make their mark. Dark Windows seems to be a case of the latter. The film’s biggest problems stem from a screenplay in need of an overhaul. The characters are grating. Logic is often abandoned in favor of furthering the narrative. The plot developments are predictable and formulaic. And the pacing is simply abysmal.
Dark Windows follows three young friends involved in a serious car crash that claimed the life of their friend Ali (Grace Binford Sheene). The buds come together for a weekend getaway at an abandoned farmhouse in the hopes of setting their feelings of grief aside for a spell. But a masked killer on the scene has other plans.
One of my chief complaints about Dark Windows is that the characters don’t feel like real people. I had a really hard time existing with them. Peter (Rory Alexander) is absolutely unbearable. Though he just lost a friend several days prior to the events depicted in the film, he turns everything into a raunchy sex joke. One might be tempted to interpret that as a coping mechanism. But it comes across more like he’s indifferent to the tragic conclusion of their friend’s life.
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Monica (Annie Hamilton) isn’t much better than Peter. She incessantly texts Ali’s boyfriend with every intention of getting physical with him. I’ve been through a profound tragedy and I have a pretty good idea of what grief looks like. But Dark Windows doesn’t ever succeed in realistically depicting the grieving process onscreen. Of the core group, Tilly (Anna Bullard) is the only one that seems to care about Ali’s death at all. But she is written absent of any depth. So, we have three core characters that do nothing to ingratiate themselves to the audience.
I can see why the screenwriter Ulvrik Kraft set these characters up as he did. I suspect he was trying to give the viewer reason to want to see the key players punished for their role in the accident, which they all bear some responsibility for. And that makes sense. But that could be accomplished more effectively with a bit of nuance. Characters can (and should) be portrayed as being both good and bad, just like real people. But the intent here seems to be to create vile and repulsive characters with little to no remorse so the audience will clamor to see them pay for their recklessness. But for that to work, the punishment needs to be worth the wait and the audience needs someone to invest in while we wait for the comeuppance to be doled out. None of those prerequisites are met here.
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There’s also something very peculiar about the characters’ logic. Monica suggests going to her grandparents’ farmhouse for a weekend to try and escape their grief over the loss of their friend Ali. But Monica’s grandparents are deceased and no one has lived in the house since they died. All of the furniture is covered in sheets. And it’s rundown and ramshackle. I can’t imagine wanting to go someplace that depressing to get away from my depressing thoughts.
The pacing is also a problem. The first hour of the film is mostly spent with the three leads lazing around the farmhouse. Nothing remotely sinister happens until roughly the one-hour mark. And the film is only 80 minutes long. Slow burn can be really effective when leveraged properly. But that’s just not the case here. For a slow burn to work, there must be characters with a modicum of depth. But we don’t have that here.
The lack of narrative developments in the first two acts and the reprehensible characters make some of the film’s other shortcomings especially noticeable. For example. when the friends arrive at the farmhouse (where no one lives), the power is still on. There’s no mention of having it reconnected for the trip and no explanation as to why it’s left on indefinitely. Another example of questionable logic is the way the three survivors walk away from the crash without a scratch. We know Ali wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. So, it makes sense that her injuries would be the most severe. But how does every other character come away from such a major crash without any damage?
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Also troublesome is the lack of originality in the narrative. For instance: When everything hits the fan, we find that the car won’t start. That device has been used so many times and there are so many alternative options for stranding a group of characters. They could have locked their keys in the car when they arrived or gotten a flat when they pulled into the driveway. That would produce the same result but feel less contrived. Instead, the easiest and most obvious option is employed.
The third act does show some promise. There was a short period of time when I felt invested. Director Alex Herron successfully mounted a sense of tension and delivered a couple of good scares near the end. But the action is confined to about five minutes out of eighty. And that’s just too little, too late.
I commend the creative team for getting a movie made. And I will concede that there are times when the film almost works. But what does work is overshadowed by what doesn’t. If you’re keen to check it out, you can scope Dark Windows in select theaters and On Demand beginning on August 18, 2023.
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‘Dark Windows'
Summary
The film’s biggest problems stem from a screenplay in need of an overhaul. The characters are grating. Logic is often abandoned in favor of furthering the narrative. The plot developments are predictable and formulaic. And the pacing is abysmal.
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