Released: 28th September 2018 (Worldwide on Netflix)
Length: 125 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Jeffery Wright, Alexander Skarsgard, James Badge Dale, Riley Keough, Tantoo Cardinal and Julian Black Antelope
With a handful of small, low-budget efforts under his belt, Jeremy Saulnier has teamed up with Netflix for his latest film; Hold the Dark works well, even if it doesn’t come together fully.
Dipped in the chilling atmosphere of mid-2000s Alaska, Hold the Dark follows Russel Core (Jeffery Wright), a writer and closed scholar of wolf behaviour. He is asked by lonely mother Medora Sloane to track down the wolf pack that killed her son Bailey. However, what starts as a straightforward errand turns into a state-wide manhunt as Medora and her military veteran husband Vernon Sloane (Alexander Skarsgard) have other more underhanded plans. As the modern police clash with the more traditional native Americans in the area, Core is the caught in the middle as he teams up with police chief Donald Marium (James Badge Dale) to unravel the true crimes perpetrated. Unfolding from multiple perspectives, the film is very slow-moving, gradually building tension and releasing it with the occasional fight sequence. There’s a also a backdrop of old folklore and spiritual belief personified by the Native Americans throughout the area, which work to deepen the production.
Setting is incredibly important in Hold the Dark. At several points I was reminded of 2015’s The Revenant; Hold the Dark is a similarly quiet production, with often majestic shots of the Alaskan landscape. Many of the scenes take place at night, where the howling wind and blistering cold create a foreboding ambience. The film hammers home the small-town tundras that are often very distant from modern civilization and this same contrast translates over into the characters. The police are told on occasion that they really don’t belong and their sense of order clashes with the harsh nature on display. The film falls short of fully immersing the audience however; the motif of the wolf, personified by both the packs that roam the mountains and Sloane’s own unrelenting nature is mostly a passing gesture. You never quite feel the connection Core has with these animals; they serve a symbolic purpose but are placed so sparsely that they don’t feel wholly cohesive. While the film’s thematic trappings don’t reach their full potential, the sets, costume work and violence effects are all brilliant; it makes a collective push for realism be it the log cabins in the words or the grievous injuries sustained in a fight.
Be that as it may, the character performances are all very strong; to match the film’s slower pacing each member of the cast is very understated in their performances. Jeffery Wright is particularly strong as Core; while we don’t always follow the action from his perspective, he’s a genuine voice of reason among the tension, often letting his actions speak louder than words. The only drawback is that the sub-plot involving his distant daughter only plays a minor role, rather than a central part of the narrative. Equally well done are Medora and Vernon Sloane; the former’s apparent innocence being matched by the more ruthless and unforgiving tendencies of her husband. Again, both actors accomplish more with fewer words; their behaviour is very perplexing throughout which works to build a sense of mystery, yet simultaneously you never find out why they act the way they do. We suspect that Vernon Sloane is desensitised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but’s it never wholly clear. Somewhat weaker than the others is James Badge Dale; he plays police chief Marium quite straight and only a single brief scene fleshes out his character further.
Hold the Dark is a worthwhile, if flawed effort from director Jeremy Saulnier. Its atmospheric, often superstitious setting is enticing territory for the thriller genre and while not every story thread really fits into a cohesive overarching narrative, the film still makes for a fittingly frigid tale to ride out the winter months with.
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars (Good)
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