When I found out the creative team (unfortunately Not Ti West) behind House of the Devil and Innkeepers was behind Darling, I kind of lost my shit! I loved those movies. They really did a great job of building up tension with solid story telling which led to memorable and top notch payouts at the end of the movie. Darling was no different.
Shot entirely in black and white, Darling tells the story of a young woman who takes on the task as caretaker for one of the oldest homes in New York City. This house, you learn, does not have the best track record when it comes to keeping the caretakers alive. As Darling goes about her daily business, she begins to notice odd things around the house, like an upside-down crucifix necklace in one of her dresser drawers, or a long undecorated hallway that leads to the only locked door in the entire place. Madame advises Darling to not go into that room, and to not worry about. Well the house– and Darling herself– had a different agenda. As she spends more time in that house, Darling begins to act weirder and weirder. SPOILERS AHEAD… The shit hits the fan when we find out that Darling is mentally unstable.
The story unfolds in six chapters; Her, Invocation, Thrills, Demons, Inferno and The Caretaker– each taking us deeper down the decaying spiral of Darling’s psyche. Lauren Ashley Carter, who portrays Darling, does surprisingly well carrying the film. Her performance makes her character’s mental break very believable. She gave Darling a vulnerability so that when she became unhinged, it caught you off guard. Her mental breakdown in the restaurant bathroom comes to mind. This one-woman show definitely left me anticipating how crazy this girl could really get. Great effort.
The story unfolds in six chapters; Her, Invocation, Thrills, Demons, Inferno and The Caretaker– each taking us deeper down the decaying spiral of Darling’s psyche. Lauren Ashley Carter, who portrays Darling, does surprisingly well carrying the film. Her performance makes her character’s mental break very believable. She gave Darling a vulnerability so that when she became unhinged, it caught you off guard. Her mental breakdown in the restaurant bathroom comes to mind. This one-woman show definitely left me anticipating how crazy this girl could really get. Great effort.
The violence and gore in this flick come in towards the last half of the film– and it does not disappoint. One of my favorite parts of the movie was witnessing Darling clean up her mess. Those final 3 chapters truly show what the real Darling is capable of. The flaws in this movie are minimal and pacing-related. The first half of the film is a little slow, but director Mickey Keating successfully builds tension in those slow sequences. The film has a run-time of 78 minutes, so it doesn’t leave you lingering too much with those slow bits.
Darling was a cool throwback type of horror flick, reminiscent of Psycho. The retro vibe coupled with a strong second half got my attention and put director Mickey Keating and actress Ashly Lauren Carter on my radar. //Arturo Padilla
Darling was a cool throwback type of horror flick, reminiscent of Psycho. The retro vibe coupled with a strong second half got my attention and put director Mickey Keating and actress Ashly Lauren Carter on my radar. //Arturo Padilla
