Dark Remains

R1 DVD

Monarch Home Video

Web: http://www.monarchvideo.com

Dark Remains is highly successful horror tale which is in many ways much more of a traditional take on the ghost story than the modern adaptations that rely on gore and violence. It places a strong emphasis on mood, music, character development (with very solid acting) with shocks provided by ghosts appearing in mirrors, out of shadows and when you least expect it. It also has an intriguing plot which unites the story of a grieving couple with the strange darkness of a cabin near an abandoned prison and unexplained deaths.

The story opens with a suicide, we see an unnamed woman slit her wrists in the bath and a man (presumably her husband) blow his brains out. We then cut to Allen and Julie Pike who have just found their child Emma brutally murdered in her bed. With no leads the police are pointing the finger and they feel angry and lost and decide to rent an isolated mountain cabin to get away from it all. Allen is a technical book writer and Julie is an accomplished photographer.

As Julie fights her depression, she decides to return to her craft but begins to see images of Emma in the photos she takes. However, when she shows them to others nobody else sees what she sees. She becomes obsessed with taking these photographs and comes to believe her dead daughter is appearing to her.

At the same time strange things begin to happen in the cabin. When friends come to stay they see a dead woman fall down the stairs and refuse to return. The strange activities begin to accelerate and it is hard to tell whether it is Julie’s psychological state deteriorating or whether they are real. Allen begins to investigate the Cabin and finds that ever since the prison has closed everyone who occupied the cabin has died a suspicious death. We come to understand that that something horrible occurred around May 22rd some years before and that each year people die around that date, the deaths all seem connected to a strange and disturbed local, Jim.

As the movie progresses, there are lots of impressive shocks and jumps, the ghosts are impressively nerve wracking and while the film does rely heavily on these episodes, the plot, acting and mood make it a superior supernatural thriller. The ghosts look great being played by real people showing various forms of decay and with deathlike grimaces.

The way in which the couple’s grief and the story about a local tragedy are intertwined is especially successful and the locations in the film are very well used. The cabin looks so sublime and marvellous, it is no abandoned house, yet as time goes on it becomes such a nexus of terror. Then there is the abandoned jail next door which is such a superbly ghostly location that it is truly terrifying.

Dark Remains is a masterly ghost story, nicely told, well acted and using great locations and music. As an independent film it is a testament to how a good ghost story should be told. Brian Avenet-Bradley has been making indie films for some years and this is his most accomplished and impressive to date and is really such an achievement that it stands out from the many big budget ghost films released by Hollywood.