A dreadful, disquieting & diabolical nightmare that reeks of death & foreboding from the first frame to the last, The Dark and the Wicked is one of those horror entries that relies on its silently brooding & gradually escalating atmosphere to crawl under the skin of its viewers, and is a haunting, unnerving & bone-chilling terror that more than lives up to its name.
Written & directed by Bryan Bertino (The Monster), the story begins on a highly promising note and the setup, location & stylistic choices only help magnify the bleak mood & sinister aura. There is a lurking & looming presence of an evil that lingers over the family and although Bertino touches on the themes of love, loss, grief & guilt, he doesn't dig deeper to aptly explore those topics.
While it would've helped to have the story journey inward into its characters and the characters themselves to be more fleshed out & exhibit more depth, the film still makes do with the given script, and conjures some genuinely effective scares with its eerie camerawork & ominous score. It doesn't quite stick the landing but the uneasy feeling is sustained throughout and the performances are convincing.
Overall, The Dark and the Wicked is one of the creepiest films to surface in recent years and is absolutely unforgiving & unrelenting in its intensity & uncomfortable aura it exudes. The uncanny cinematography & unsettling sound design are major contributors to its effectiveness but with a more refined script, this could've gone places. A cursed chiller with inescapable devilry brewing under the surface, Bryan Bertino's latest delivers on its title.
