Saturday, November 14, 2015

Darling (2015) Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival 2015

Stark black and white about a young girl who becomes a caretaker for a New York City mansion with a haunted history who slowly goes mad.

Echoes of REPULSION and THE SHINING mix with 1960's art films or perhaps the stark black and white films of Andy Milligan to make one strange movie.

I had hoped to catch this film when it recently played at Lincoln Center's Scary Movie series, however I had to wait for a trip to Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival to actually see it. Sadly I'm not sure it was worth the wait.

As deliberate and manipulative as a film can be DARLING seems to be more about mood than it is about plot. Granted the film is supposed to be about a trip into the shattered psyche of Darling, but there isn't much to tie it all together.  I love the films pieces, the stark NYC photography, the occasional frightening image and Lauren Ashley Carter's performance, but as a whole the film left me cold and down right annoyed.

Blame the wildly overdone score which runs roughshod over everything and blame the occasional strobbing effect that gave me a headache and had be keeping my eyes closed for part of the film lest my brain explode.

Despite this being the one film I wanted to see at Ithaca I was disappointed.

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