Dark August

A hard drinking, chain-smoking man of "39" (the actor was 44 at the time, and he looks 49) accidentally ran down a child in the street. Probably drunk driving. Then an old man puts a curse on him, that's probably the most interesting thing about this flick besides the lovely Vermont countryside.

Sal seems old as hell, certainly too old for his blonde airheaded girlfriend who enables his alcoholic self. He's just gross, unrelatable, the way he lives his life is obviously the curse. When does a curse ever work on someone who is sober and does yoga every day?

I've seen worse than Dark August, but I've certainly seen better.

A modern yarn about a curse. Less a horror movie than a modern folk tale, I suspect those expecting horror are the ones most disappointed in this.

I was impressed overall with the cinematic competence of this semi-obscure film. Well-cast, well-acted, and well directed, there is also a soundtrack by William S. Fischer which adds a lot - in particular a beautiful piano piece while the local witch assembles a remedy for a child.

Great Vermont scenery, and J.J. Barry is well-cast here as a modern everyman thrown into this bizarre and tragic situation.

The magical ritual herein will be interesting for students of the occult: drawing variously from Christianity (the Lord's Prayer), Qabbalah, bits from Crowley (IAO) and Wicca, along with a fairly extended tarot card sequence are well done.

This is not a great film but it is a good one, if you aren't expecting something to keep you on the edge of your seat. This is just not that kind of story.

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to my review of 1976s Dark August.

Before I get into the film review, here are my ratings for the movie.

The story gets 1.5 out of 2: The Direction a 1.25: The Tempo and Flow receive a 1: While the Acting gets 1.25: And my Enjoyment level earns a 1.25 out of 2: Dark August, therefore, receives a total of 6.25 out of 10.

The particular thing I admire about this film is the story. Even though it's primarily a revenge flick, the writers JJ and Carolyne Barry, and Martin Goldman, go the extra mile. The central plot is about a girl killed in a road accident, and her grandfathers quest for revenge. However, good old grandpops doesn't grab his rifle and hunt the man down. No. He lights a black candle and recites an incantation to bring forth an ancient evil to kill the driver. It's here and in additional incantation scenes that the Barry's and Goldman add the extra touch. Believable dialogue for spell-casting. The spells are no lame-ass Hogwarts Latin one-word crap. There are feelings and power in these words. For me, Dark August includes the most genuine spell-casting phraseology put on film.

On the whole, the writers provide the audience with a good storyline and believable and relatable characters. Though, it does suffer from slowness at times. These pausing periods, which aren't too terrible, could have been used to continue to build the characters and story.

Goldman also directed this little treasure of a horror film. He possesses a fine eye for iconic compositional shots. In the opening sequence, he gives the audience a pan of the landscape, and it's magnificent. The sun is setting over mountains on the horizon. Goldman captures a light-leak from the setting sun to the left edge of the screen. As he pans, the light-leak moves correspondingly. The entire scene gave me a pleasant and euphoric feeling. It's delightful when a director plans every shot of the film. There's a particularly eerie shot of a mysterious robed figure as he stands between the trunks of two trees. The image is centre-screen and framed by the forest. Add to this the quirky and discordant music, and Goldman injects a cold chill into you.

I found it a bonus and a plus to my enjoyment that Goldman uses local people in his shots. The townsfolk are most evident in Sal's first mental attack. At the time, he's in the local store. In the background, the people are shopping. And they don't appear to be acting shopping. I particularly enjoyed the two kids messing about. The realisticness of this scene was great.

The only place that Goldman staggers is with the pacing of the storytelling. The slow pace works, for the most part. However, some segments needed a tad more speed. Surprisingly, this is most evident in the second incantation sequence. It's too long. Though I know it needs to be creepy, the scene is exceedingly slow and creates a dragged out feel. Nevertheless, it's eloquently written.

The cast is on their top form also. And, co-writers JJ Barry and Carolyne Barry do surprisingly well in the lead roles. They work splendidly as a couple; their real-life relationship possibly helped to make their scenes more realistic

I completely believed in the evil grandpoppa. William Robertson perfectly executes the evil stare. There's no way I would've messed with him. I'd have packed up and turned tail and ran. Shame his speaking sections don't possess the equivalent power. Luckily for both the film and the audience, the grandfather represents the quiet and brooding type. I'm not too convinced he even voiced the opening incantation as this voice oozes ominousness.

The only gripe with the performances was that of Kim Hunter's. She delivers a quality performance as the witch. Nonetheless, when she starts the end enchantment, she comes across a little flat. Her monotony could be another reason why the scene appeared slow. It's a shame as this is part of the story's conclusion and was required to hold the audience's attention.

Dark August is an odd title and doesn't do the film justice. I say this because there's no mention of the month, and it's not dark. Well, not that dark. There are hints of suicidal thoughts, though these are only slight. More depth to Sal's grief would have been better. After all, he was the cause of the granddaughter's death. You know he's troubled, but I couldn't help feeling that I wanted more.

That said, this is an enjoyable movie if you like slow creepy flicks. There's no gross-out gore. Even though we witness one of the men saw into his leg, we never see the girl get run over, even though we see the scene a few times. The accident happens off-screen.

I would recommend Dark August for every Horror fan, except the gore-hounds. It's rightly worth one sitting, though I will be going back to it in the future. I wouldn't recommend it for newbies either. The slowness may put you off watching other horror flicks, and that would be a shame because there are so many excellent ones out there. No, this one is for the seasoned fans.

Once you've escaped the evil granddad, make your way through the forest and check out my Absolute Horror list to see where this revenge flick ranked in my charts.

Take Care & Stay Well. Get Inoculated.

After killing a little girl in a car wash, Sal (J. J. Barry) is plagued by a series of "accidents", and stalked by a tall, dark figure. It seems that someone hasn't taken kindly to Sal's actions and is slowly destroying his life.

Enter Adrianna (Kim Hunter), a mystic who could be Sal's only hope.

DARK AUGUST is a somber tale of supernatural dread and doom, culminating in a final confrontation between good and eeevil.

Both Barry and Hunter are believable in their roles, which is essential in a film like this.

Recommended for fans of paranormal revenge...

I'm no stranger to a slow burn horror film. In fact, I adore them, but there's a difference between a slow burn and a movie where almost nothing happens. For almost its entire runtime, Dark August appears to be building up to something really great an fails to deliver with one of the worst climaxes in film history.

As a concept, Dark August seems to have everything going for it. After accidentally killing a little girl, a middle aged man believes that the little girl's grandfather has put a curse on him and he has to find some way to get the curse reversed.

Every now and then, there will be a slightly unnerving shot of black cloak-clad stalkers peeping at the protagonist from behind a tree or another character will accidentally saw into his own leg because the protagonist is having some kind of a curse-induced dizzy spell, but these moments are few and far between and at about 85 minutes, Dark August feels as if it overstays its welcome.

Despite its narrative issues, Dark August is still pretty well shot with some beautiful images of the countryside and the actors are good, but it's in service of a story that might have needed to spend a little more time in the oven.