With the horror genre constantly undergoing reinvention, is there room for an old-school traditional scarefest? Of course there is! For every Scream and Cabin In The Woods, both game changers in their own right, there’s still filmmakers whose approach to fear is grounded in straight-up scares. That means no nudging, winking or in-jokes. That’s clearly on the agenda in the teaser trailer (courtesy of The Playlist) for Jack Heller’s Dark Was The Night.
The story is based in the small town of Maiden Woods and revolves around Sheriff Paul Shields (played by Kevin Durant). When a logging company sets up for business, he must investigate the repercussions of their work as they awaken an evil force within the woods. Bianca Kajdich plays his wife Susan Shields, and Lukas Haas brings in the reinforcement as fellow officer Donny Saunders.
Even the title rings with an air of Poe or Lovecraft, like a haunting opening to a poem or stanza. The little preview is good indicator of the tone we can expect from the movie. It’s my favourite kind of trailer. The sort that doesn’t aim to completely remove all elements of surprise from the full movie. It does exactly what it’s supposed to: it teases.
We open with Durant and Haas chatting in a diner over the unknown events of the previous night. Then we’re granted a series of jump cuts to heighten the terror, including shots of a dead deer lying in the road and a gigantic flock of birds mysteriously flying overhead. There’s a palpable sense of the eerie, especially with the closing shot on Durant. Check it out below.
Dark Was The Night is set to premiere in October at LA Screamfest.
