I would like to take a moment, before I
get into my latest movie list and talk about Dark Movies; what
that term really means to me. Dark Movies
most always have certain things in common: the characters are
flawed and multi-dimensional in their imperfections; the plots are
often situations where these flawed characters are trapped in some
sort of way – there's a desperation as we the audience root for our
characters and try to figure out how they'll escape their trap or
traps; the best Dark Movies also
question our morals and values as humans – they ask deep questions
and don't shy away from uncomfortable shadows in shady alleyways. I
have always loved Dark Movies
the best, all genres of them: drama, horror, westerns, comedy. Here
is a list of my dark favorites that are currently streaming
on Hulu.
1. Talk To Her - (2002)
Talk To Her is a drama but such a strange one that it borders on bizarre melodrama. The film centers around two men who meet at a hospital while each are caring for a comatose woman. Marco's woman is his girlfriend who got injured in a bullfight. Benigno is a male nurse who has fallen in love with his patient, a woman he has only known while she has been in a coma. Fascinating viewing!
Talk To Her is a drama but such a strange one that it borders on bizarre melodrama. The film centers around two men who meet at a hospital while each are caring for a comatose woman. Marco's woman is his girlfriend who got injured in a bullfight. Benigno is a male nurse who has fallen in love with his patient, a woman he has only known while she has been in a coma. Fascinating viewing!
2. Winter's Bone - (2010)
Before she was an X Men, before she rocked Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence gave her breakthrough performance in Winter's Bone as Ree Dolly, a tougher-than-nails poor-as-dirt Ozark Mountain girl who journeys through the treacherous mountains as she tries to track down her drug-dealing father and encounters the dregs of a forgotten yet frighteningly menacing society.
3. Dark City - (1998)
Roger Ebert says of Dark City that it is "not a story so much as an experience, it is a triumph of art direction, set design cinematography, special effects - and imagination." I include this quote because like Blade Runner, or Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the special effects and set design service the film and not the other way around. You will get hooked on the mysterious workings of the story as well.
4. Paranoid Park - (2007)
Alex is a young skateboarder in Portland, Oregon who accidentally causes the death of a security guard while riding a freight train. The movie is disturbingly hypnotic as it follows Alex, who cannot tell anyone about what happened. Paranoid Park will keep you glued to the screen with beautiful cinematography, great acting, excellent music, and a profoundly upsetting story.
5. Flatliners - (1990)
Flatliners gives us a classic eighties/nineties all star line-up: Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt, as five medical students who experiment with "near death" experiences, bringing each other back to life right before they fully check out. Suspense and chills that hold up well despite being made in 1990. Or maybe it's better because of that.
6.) Blue Velvet - (1986)
Writer/director David Lynch has experienced a resurgence as of late with his return to Twin Peaks (2017) - the beloved series that made television history in 1990. Blue Velvet put him on the map as far as most movie-goers are concerned. The film is mesmerizing, bold, and unbelievably daring (even by today's standards). It is a mystery, a tragedy, and for those who look for it, a film laced with some very dark comedy.
7. The Talented Mr. Ripley - (1999)
Mat Damon plays Tom Ripley, a poor young man with a talent for impersonating people and stealing their identities. Ripley cons his way into the lives of the well-to-do Dickey (Jude Law) and Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) with intentions that become more and more sinister as the crafty plot evolves. Look for a spot-on supporting role by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
8. 10 Cloverfield Lane - (2016)
I went into this movie thinking it was about one thing and then I began to think - "Wait this isn't about that at all, it's about this other thing". I changed opinions and viewpoints about three times before it was over. That rarely happens to me in a film. I had no idea what to expect until the film's last twenty minutes. Now, that is exciting!
Guillermo del Toro served as Executive Producer on this creepy little gem of a film. The Orphanage tells the story of Laura (Belen Rueda) and her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) who are raising their son in an old house that once was an orphanage where Laura was raised. It isn't long before their son begins talking to an "invisible friend" and the scare-factor cranks up from there.
A hitman, Leon (Jean Reno) saves a young girl Mathilda (Natalie Portman) after her family is brutally murdered in the apartment next to him. As they form a unique father/daughter bond, Leon teaches the 12 year-old Mathilda how to be an assassin. This was Natalie Portman's debut role. Gary Oldman also delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as a psycho detective hot on Leon's trail.
11. In The Mouth Of Madness - (1994)
I enjoy horror movies I have fun with them and jump and scream like everyone else, but rarely do they actually scare me. This movie actually scared me. In The Mouth Of Madness deals with the subject of insanity and demons that come from the mind and then materialize in the flesh. It raises the question: what if you are going insane, but what if this horror is also really happening?
