Dark Nature Review

September 24, 2022 at 7:30pm
By Jason Stettner

While scenic with the locations showing lovely views of the Rocky Mountains, this horror movie that dives more into the psychological elements of the mind fails to deliver. It’s a rather slow burn pacing wise and while it sets things up to be rather interesting there really isn’t much of a payout.

You never really get shown anything aside from teases, and are ultimately left to wonder what exactly happened to certain individuals. It starts off rather intensely, helping to give us a frame of the struggles the main character is going through in needing a journey through the mountains. It’s just that side characters aren’t fully established mostly being there with only glimpses into their struggles.

It sort of just goes by as a bunch of walking through lovely spots with small bits of happiness and others of psychological horror. It does actually start out rather neat though like I mentioned, and I was totally into what was going on but really just felt like it didn’t hit the mark as time went on.

This was quite well shot, I found it to be a rather lovely display of the Rocky Mountains. It’s mostly all done in nature around various cool rock formations and lots of trees. It’s all well framed and was effective in the darkness that would pop up throughout the run.

The night and or darker scenes are actually highlight for this one, very effectively done. Even some of the more messed up horror elements that do get showcased are really creepy and well done. I’d say the acting was mostly fine, not too many complaints there though I’m not sure there was a great level of chemistry within the group.

The Conclusion

Dark Nature while beautiful in how it was shot, ultimately felt somewhat disappointing as it doesn’t fully deliver on its concept. It’s more some teases here or there that felt spooky and a darker moment here or there with things not all coming together.

It’s very scenic though if you like the spot where it’s shot, and as I mentioned its visually appealing throughout the run time. It was very well framed and I think that perhaps for the budget they achieved beyond the scope. It’s a neat viewing, but also not one that was particularly striking or too interesting to me.

Dark Nature Review at Home with Streamed Viewing during Calgary Film Festival
Screening Provided by Calgary Film

Rating Overall: 5.6