...of Maya Deren, the Russian experimental filmmaker from over half a century ago. This little gem invokes a feeling of dread that is even visible and audible in the incredible silence of NYC (which is eerie for me considering it's the city in which I was born and I've lived very close across the Hudson. I've even been in one of the old mansions across from Riverside Park-I've always had a bit of a sixth sense & I had some strange feelings while walking past some of these townhouse mansions. When I worked at a video post-production house years years ago, I was re-creating video for a very wealthy man. Some of the mini DV tapes (yes, millennials-I'm an old bag...ha) were messed up & I had to go to his mansion to get original dailies & re-create some of his audio narratives. I felt nothing strange about his home, but while I was walking from & to the train there were a few old townhouses that gave me the willies. The house in this film is just like those other houses. Feelings of dread, impending doom, melancholy, and evil are imminent, and sometimes some people pass them by & feel something is off-kilter.
We see two different lighting effects used in this film: in using black & white, regular neon white overhead lights, which appear dreary & institutional on film and fits in with the question regarding Darling's "mental health," and Film Noir-esque shadow & light style of lighting which is the obvious choice for a mystery, and for when the "protagonist(?)," Darling becomes the femme-fatale, or the antagonist.
The chapters give notice to the invitation of a very dark and evil being-mainly, they are the steps in a demon possession. Apparently, people who lived/worked there were either driven "mad" due to an evil presence. The question I ask: Is there a singular demon in the house (yet refers to one's self as "Legion," which is a hallmark of a demon), or is the house, in the words of Stephen King in Salem's Lot, "inherently evil?" You could ask the same of King's The Shining.
Technically, I believe it was shot nicely. The shots of the City, portrayed in silence, and as the girl sinks into an inferno, shots of the City have begun to be portrayed upside down. I like the often creepy ambient music; it invites mystery and dread, especially when it's discordant. One thing which I felt was unrealistic was when Darling stabbed someone in the dining room with a knife (in case you were wondering, stabbing someone repeatedly would get quite messy...especially every time she pulls the knife out of him, which causes an unbelievable amount of bleeding. If you thought Quentin Tarrentino's huge blood squirts & spurts, many times due to decapitation, were inaccurate & over the top (as some believe), it would be an incorrect assumption. Also, contrary to popular belief, there were no pools of blood, no blood spatter (except on Henry), and the rug was clean. We see her cleaning the dining room's wooden floor later, yet it appears there's nothing to clean. No blood stain(s) on the carpet, still, AND the chair cushion, although he was stabbed while sitting in that chair-stabbed several times so we as the audience who have at least half of the necessary brain power or training to notice that there should have been a crapload of blood all over the carpet & chair, which is an extremely obvious (to me, anyhow, since I was a Media Arts major in college) continuity mistake since I have a number of very good things to say about this film. Firstly, yes, it may seem silly when Darling stabs the dude to death (the one who returned to her the upside-down cross necklace, about whom she seemed to have suspicions) & then, after she kills him he comes back to life & attempts to cut off her air supply & she awakens to realize she'd only had a nightmare, but it's a phenomenon we've seen occur in countless films & TV shows.
I see traces of David Lynch in this film, namely Eraserhead. I haven't looked up the director of this film, & have no idea if he has a similar MO as Lynch, meaning the director of Darling could've explained the reason behind the film and/or the film, itself. If he does have similar habits when it comes to certain films he creates & due to more research & studies his work becomes less sophomoric, the director/writer could become the David Lynch of the millennial generation (if they have what it takes to know what good filmmaking entails). From what I saw in Darling, I can sense the filmmaker's ability to create ethereal & ambiently creepy scenes. I think the issue here includes weak character development, work needed on editing the length of certain scenes & shots in which no characters are speaking and the time drags (if shortened, a good scene that had to end up on the cutting room floor could've been either included or extended. As a sophomoric film by an aspiring experimental director, I give it a 7.
