Review: 'The Dark And The Wicked' One of the Best Horror Films of the Year

Bryan Bertino ("The Strangers") goes balls to the wall brooding in his fourth feature film, the unnerving "The Dark and the Wicked." Taking a nod from recent contemplative and moody horror pics like "Hereditary" and "The Witch," Bertino crafts a horror film that is specifically paced to generate a mounting sense of dread that is at time unbearable (in a good way.)

At a rural farm in an unnamed American town, a woman (Julie Oliver-Touchstone) cares for her dying husband (Michael Zagst), who spends his days bedridden and mostly unconscious. But something is not right on the farm, and the woman knows it. When tragedy happens, her worst fears have come to pass, and she dies. Enter her adult children Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott, Jr.). Told by their mother not to come, they arrive shortly before her demise, only to slowly realize maybe she was right.

When they discover her diary, in which she writes about an evil and mysterious presence in the house, they start to question her sanity. But that questioning ceases when the two siblings begin to experience horrors they never could have imagined.

Bertino writes and directs this devastatingly sullen horror film, but that is oddly its strength. This isn't a "go for the jump scare" type of film (although there are a few). This is a film of long static shots peering into a foreboding darkness. It is characters hearing unusual sounds in the darkness that make them shiver and sweat with fright. It is watching the slow disintegration of our leads' psyches as they come to realize something far more diabolical is in control. And they are helpless.

There are no overt explanations for what is going on at the farm, which gives the film a hopeless dread that makes it quite effective. This is a slow build type of film, but Bertino's use of sound and the continuously throbbing score keep the audience on edge throughout.

Marin Ireland ("The Umbrella Academy," "The Empty Man") gives a wrenching performance as a troubled daughter completely unraveled by what is occurring in the house. Not only does she lose her mother and then must watch her father succumb to illness, but she has to try to make sense of the horrific events that keep occurring around her. It's a compelling and brutal role.

Abbott, Jr. has the less showy part here, but it is still completely effective. He's the doubter until he, too, experiences unusual events around the farm. And those events are showy when they need to be, and quietly unnerving the rest of the time. A simple jangle of bells on a wire elicits terror. Images in the darkness make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. And the sounds of something otherworldly lurking in the shadows is brilliantly chilling.

"The Dark and the Wicked" is superbly unsettling and one of the absolute best horror films of the year. It sinks its claws into a mood of unbearable dread and doesn't let go. Wicked indeed.

"The Dark and the Wicked" is OnDemand and VOD November 6th.