Taglines: She told you not to come.
The Dark and the Wicked Movie Storyline. The opening 15 minutes are by far the most striking, letting us travel around the central setting, a remote farmhouse and a barn full of bleating goats surrounded by flat, empty acreage, and letting us get to know the main characters. The father (Michael Zagst) has been in decline for a long time. He is pictured mostly in closeup, in what will eventually become his deathbed, assisted by oxygen. The mother (Julie Oliver-Touchstone) is traumatized from having to care for him, mainly by herself.
When their adult children, Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.), finally arrive, the palpable feelings of suppressed guilt and anxiety are as unsettling as the moaning winds that are so often heard on the soundtrack. (Sound designer Joe Stockton uses multitrack stereo to tighten the emotional screws, but always subtly; you hear muffled vocal sounds and creaky floorboards to the right and left of you, or somewhere behind you, and you might wonder if it’s only your imagination).
What’s going on here? Something dark and wicked, clearly—but more than that. Something foul, obscene, possibly evil. We don’t know what, but every detail of performance and craft points us in the direction of accepting that there are things happening beyond the grasp of our five senses, and we have to admit to that, and confront it, somehow, in some way.
The Dark and the Wicked is a 2020 American horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino. It stars Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr. and Xander Berkeley. The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on August 28, 2020. It was released on November 6, 2020, by RLJE Films.
The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on August 28, 2020. RLJE Films had acquired distribution rights to the film and set it for a November 6, 2020 theatrical release. It was originally scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, however, the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film earned $410,787 at the global box office.
The Dark and the Wicked (2020)
Directed by: Bryan Bertino
Starring: Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr, Xander Berkeley, Lynn Andrews, Julie Oliver-Touchstone, Michael Zagst, Tom Nowicki, Ella Ballentine, Mel Cowan, Mindy Raymond, Chris Doubek
Screenplay by: Bryan Bertino
Production Design by: Scott Colquitt
Cinematography by: Tristan Nyby
Film Editing by: William Boodell, Zachary Weintraub
Costume Design by: Elizabeth Trott
Art Direction by: Ashley Landavazo
Music by: Tom Schraeder
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: RLJE Films
Release Date: August 28, 2020 (Fantasia), November 6, 2020 (United States)
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