Vozes da Escuridão

It was engaging. It draws you in. Acting was really good. It is unusual for a "horror" type movie to be so good. This is no slasher. Not predictable like most of the movies about summoning devil /dark rituals etc. I did not expect much but I was positively surprised. I specifically signed up to give that movie a good review as it deserves it :)

Seeking revenge is a pathway of darkness but forgiveness is absolving and divine.

Not a bad film but very slow. More creepy than horrific.

Very slow-moving horror that plays its cards very close to its chest, heightened by some fine acting. Basically, a two-piece featuring the fractious relationship between posh Sophia (Catherine Walker) and coarse Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram); these two sharply written (writer Liam Gavin, who also directs, is clearly a name to look out for), beautifully played characters carry most of the film.

Maybe we have to wait a little too long for things to start happening, but we won't get as frustrated about it as Sophia, who gets very angry indeed. This is a good, claustrophobic chiller rather than a fully-fledged horror a lot of the time, although the events toward the end take on a much more gruesome nature. I thoroughly enjoyed this. My score is 8 out of 10.

Prepare yourself for another slow, slow, incredibly slow burn. Apparently, you need to be an occultist to fully appreciate this! I felt like A Dark Song worked on a couple levels, though I'm not certain this was this writer/director's full intention. I enjoyed the character study aspect -- two people holed up in the same house for months on end, and second, this is sort of a mystery -- as in, is this guy just some psycho? Drama/mystery, not a horror movie. Ultimately, you're looking for a great payoff with a slow burn... and frankly, I don't know if sitting through this particular 100 minutes is worth this particular payoff.

Hey, critics loved it!

As other reviewers have noted, if you're looking for an "Insanitarium"-style splatter-fest then this film is not for you. The first hour of "Dark Song" is a mysterious, deliberately-paced psychological thriller with two interesting characters stuck together in a house for months, feeling each other out. An occultist (Joseph) is trying to help a woman (Sophia) contact her dead son. This requires dark rituals, fasting episodes, and sleep deprivation. Their motivations and honesty are both in question, leading to plenty of dramatic tension. What's real, in terms of both past and present? Who's lying to whom? The film takes its time exploring these questions, and for the first hour at least, the viewer's patience is well-rewarded. I especially liked Steve Oram's occultist character, who doesn't fit the classic mold of "actor" or "hero" one bit, and is all the more fascinating for it. I won't go into deeper detail for spoiler reasons, but suffice to say that both characters fall into the logical traps of mistrust, manipulation, and frustration after being cooped up for so long.

My problem with "Dark Song" was its ending. It made sense from a dramatic standpoint, and of course there were several directions it could have taken. The fact that I wasn't satisfied doesn't mean you won't be. But along the way I had some really freaky ideas that I hoped would be explored, and they weren't.

In any case, I still recommend "Dark Song" as a mature, well-made, and disturbing psychological thriller.