#39 - Darling (2015)
(dir. Mickey Keating)
A young woman is hired as the caretaker of the oldest home in Manhattan. The house is notoriously haunted, and the previous caretaker committed suicide by jumping off the top floor balcony... seems like maybe not the best job in the world. Almost immediately she begins hearing strange noises and having hallucinations. When she unexpectedly bumps into a man on the street from her past, she begins a descent into madness. Sort of The Shining meets Repulsion.
This was pretty interesting. Stylistically speaking, I thought it was a really good looking movie. The black and white cinematography is really nice, one of those films where you could frame almost any shot and hang it on your wall. Manhattan at night in B&W is sort of cheat mode, but the interior shots look great as well. The score is also really good throughout the film. The plot is pretty barebones and the spooky stuff, though mostly effective, isn't going to win any awards for originality (it does get unexpectedly disturbing at one point, though). The story is mostly told indirectly and you need to infer it from context, which works well for most of the film. At times it feels a little experimental, but I wish the filmmakers had taken the hallucinatory stuff a bit further. Also there are lots of little "subliminal" images that pop up randomly, which is cool at first but gets a little annoying by the end.
Overall I liked this quite a bit, but I think it would've worked better as a ~40-45 minute short instead of a feature. The last act in particular was a little weak. I do recommend it if you are looking for something a little different and don't mind that it favors style over substance.
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