IMDb RATING
5.5/10
3.4K
YOUR RATING
A lonely girl's violent descent into madness.A lonely girl's violent descent into madness.A lonely girl's violent descent into madness.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter watching 1960s horror films while writing, Director Mickey Keating said it felt "right and necessary" to shoot in black and white.
- GoofsDuring the many flashes and scenes featuring the locked door at the end of the hall you can see the shoes marks in the bottom right and marks around the door handle appear and disappear. These marks are made when she uses a knife to unlock the door toward the end of the film.
- Crazy creditsHalfway in the ending credits there is a scene with a new girl arriving at the mansion.
- SoundtracksLook Away Love
Written by Jay Ramsey (as Gerald H Ramsey)
Performed by Jay Ramsey & The Contempos
Courtesy of Fervor Records
Featured review
A Tedious, Overambitious & Convoluted Mess
Shot in black n white, arranged in non-chronological order, and evidently influenced by Roman Polanski's Apartment Trilogy (especially Repulsion), there is no denying that Darling is a stylishly directed feature but in its overambitious attempt to homage the notable horror classic, it ends up becoming an overbearing & convoluted mess.
Set in New York, the story of Darling follows an unnamed young woman who agrees to house sit at a large mansion that appears to have a notorious past. With nothing to do & unable to kill time, she begins to lose her grasp on reality as the extended exposure to the isolation that abounds the empty mansion triggers her descent into madness.
Written & directed by Mickey Keating, Darling is his tribute to the atmospheric chillers of the 1960s but the film lacks an identity of its own. Throughout its 78 minutes runtime, it applies tricks such as sporadically cutting to maniacal frames, screeching noises for its score & mindless meandering but all its intricacy lies only on the surface, for it is hollow from the inside.
The monochrome filters, confined setting & clever use of camera do manage to bring an unsettling element into the picture but the narrative is simply out of focus and fails to capitalise on that. The only one who is actually able to redeem something out of this whole clutter is Lauren Ashley Carter who tries her best to make her character work and chips in with a violent performance.
On an overall scale, Darling finds its filmmaker succeeding at replicating the look of Repulsion but he is unable to add the same level of thematic depth which turned that psychological horror into a genre classic. Deficient in numerous storytelling aspects & pretending to be something it isn't, this artistic endeavour bounces all over the place yet in the end, finds itself not far from where it started. Skip it.
Set in New York, the story of Darling follows an unnamed young woman who agrees to house sit at a large mansion that appears to have a notorious past. With nothing to do & unable to kill time, she begins to lose her grasp on reality as the extended exposure to the isolation that abounds the empty mansion triggers her descent into madness.
Written & directed by Mickey Keating, Darling is his tribute to the atmospheric chillers of the 1960s but the film lacks an identity of its own. Throughout its 78 minutes runtime, it applies tricks such as sporadically cutting to maniacal frames, screeching noises for its score & mindless meandering but all its intricacy lies only on the surface, for it is hollow from the inside.
The monochrome filters, confined setting & clever use of camera do manage to bring an unsettling element into the picture but the narrative is simply out of focus and fails to capitalise on that. The only one who is actually able to redeem something out of this whole clutter is Lauren Ashley Carter who tries her best to make her character work and chips in with a violent performance.
On an overall scale, Darling finds its filmmaker succeeding at replicating the look of Repulsion but he is unable to add the same level of thematic depth which turned that psychological horror into a genre classic. Deficient in numerous storytelling aspects & pretending to be something it isn't, this artistic endeavour bounces all over the place yet in the end, finds itself not far from where it started. Skip it.
Helpful•1312
- CinemaClown
- Jul 18, 2016
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- How long is Darling?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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