When I saw the name A Dark Path for the first time, I expected it to be in the same universe as A Dark Song, which is a phenomenal movie but is very underrated. Unfortunately, it’s not and instead it is a new film by Nicholas Winter, who also was the writer and director of Bone Breaker. I think it has to be better than that movie anyway!
Abi (Makenna Guyler, The Barge People, Blood Bags) and Lilly (Mari Beaseley, Robin Hood: The Rebellion) are somewhere in Eastern Europe attending a Hen Party (Bachelorette Party for those not from the UK). While headed home, their phone and GPS stoppd working. They attempt to navigate using a map and end up lost in the middle of the forest.
Of course, once there, they get a flat tire. And, this being a horror film, the spare is flat as well. So they wait for somebody to come by. But that’s not likely to happen. The locals avoid this forest and with good reason.
One lesson Winter learned from Bone Breaker was the appropriate setting for filming is at night. Dark woods are much scarier than sunny ones and a sunny setting like A Well Lit Path doesn’t sound scary at all. However, in this scenario, a dark path is not too ominous anyway. A good chunk of the film is literally the two protagonists strolling through the woods. Next Lilly strolls off alone, and she does not return. Then Abi strolls around the woods to find her. Forty minutes into a film that is seventy minutes long, we are before anything else takes place. You might think things are starting to improve when Abi runs into the severely hurt Hannah (Thomasin Lockwood). And, they do if having scary sounds is all that matters.
What about the creature? It comes hiding at the edge of the screen and is barely visible, which is how they’re played by Ade Timberline (Edge of Extinction). The film is almost over when it makes its appearance.
And that’s A Dark Path review in a nutshell an hour of people barfing at a party and sarcastically wandering through the woods. The remaining 10 minutes are reserved for a barely visible creature. It looks alright for a low-budget film, so I don’t understand why Winter didn’t use it more. Did he genuinely think all that wandering around was actually scarier? Or maybe he reasoned capturing some scenes using a camcorder was so much more entertaining that it couldn’t possibly need a monster.
There are movies out there which I think are impossible to watch unless it was purely for reviewing purposes. A Dark Path is one of those movies. It can be bought from Reel2Reel in the UK and will be available from 101 Films on September 15th to the rest of the world.
To watch more movies visit Fmovies
Also Watch for more movies like:
