HOLD THE DARK TBC
AVAILABLE 28 SEPTEMBER | NETFLIX
After reinventing the revenger with Blue Ruin (2013) and dissecting true evil in Green Room (2015), Jeremy Saulnier returns with another exploration of the ugly side of human nature. The result is the director’s most ambitious, eccentric and fascinating film to date.
At first glance, Hold The Dark is part psychological horror, part grindhouse thriller. Yet Saulnier upends genres and mixes moods, combining Stephen King, John Carpenter and a dozen others in a story about a missing child, a pack of wolves and a vengeful marine.
Jeffrey Wright stars as Russell Core, a wildlife writer hired by a grieving mum (Riley Keough) to hunt the wolf who ate her son in Alaska’s wilderness. But the film quickly ditches that thread to explore something far bigger about different types of hunters and prey.
Russell’s true battle is with his own loneliness; meanwhile, cop Donald (James Badge Dale) is fighting local superstitions – and then there’s Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård), an unhinged war vet stalking everyone through the snow like some arthouse Terminator.
As ever, Saulnier essays a startling sense of tension and menace. Rolling waves of sombre stillness are broken by bouts of bloody violence, making for an uneasy, uneven viewing experience – which is clearly the director’s intention.
Occasionally funny, often frightening and beautifully shot (it looks like an Arctic western), this is another step forward for Saulnier. An expansive work that consistently dodges expectations, Hold The Dark suggests the future’s bright for the director. Paul Bradshaw