Take two annoying and dull Irish folks, put them in a countryside with an inept peat bog creature that can't seem to kill them, and what do you have? One hour and thirty minutes of nothing. That's right, nothing. Nothing at all. It seems said bog creature just can't kill the woman, and he doesn't really try and she then cuts herself in some accidents, about five times. She purposely cuts off her finger, doesn't bleed to death, feels no pain, and later impales her foot on a loose stake while in the bogs.It is entirely dull and trivial nonsense.

Well, acted, taut and thoughtful, this Irish-made Nu-Horror piece has the makings of a ground-breaking entry into a tired and cynical field.The plot is largely told without dialogue which is a technique that should be used a lot more. The story revolves quite simply around a young Irish couple stranded and isolated as they are hunted by something hungry that rose from the peat bogs. Horror and pop-culture fans will recognize the antagonist instantly when seen in profile though in a Q&A, the director said he was only using portions of that trope despite the mimeographed physical resemblance.Both of the main actors give instinctual and layered performances particularly given the lack of substantive dialogue. This makes perfect sense as when one is running and hiding in fear for one's life, conversation might not be foremost on your mind. Grunts, groans screams and moans are used as often as words to convey their situation though I must admit it would have been more natural for one of them to freak out at the whole illogical and unnatural nature of their predicament. Think Blair Witch Project's many uses of hysterics in the face of an unseen, unknowable foe.Niamh Alger's turn as the can-do girl fighting for her and her boyfriend's life is a nice break from the standard male protagonist role, though in Horror, beautiful women DO seem to fare better than average in the post-Millennial world, still Algar's Sarah is a convincing and tenacious hero without the need to show us Sigourney Weaver levels of unstopability.Gore and cheap starts are not an issue here, though one of the characters does make a decision to hurt themselves for reasons which will be apparent once seen and while the idea is sound and shows the character to be quick-witted and tough, the special fx produced a pay off that was slightly Fangoria c.1975.The antagonist IS suitably mysterious and vague, avoiding the pitfall of the horror exposed to the light in all its tangible goriness and thus reduced to just another Saturday Matinée beastie.The movie does suffer from pacing problems as that much time without dialogue SHOULD give you some motion to the story rather than extended breaks of the characters catching their breath or tending to cuts, leaves one feeling the the director's choice to allow the scenes to breathe organically is less patience and more self-indulgent.Despite this, the film's great disappointment lies in its use of the camera. This is not like the aforementioned Blair Witch, wherein one gets Cops-style shaky cam on-the-run. Rather it seems to be quite infatuated by its own cleverness in creating claustrophobia even when outdoors or in large spaces, the camera is placed so close to the characters as to prevent you from seeing both sides of their face in some cases. The devotion to this sense of confusion and displacement carries through to wide-angle scenes where in many cases objects are left to intervene between viewer and subject. While the goal is clearly to leave the viewer unbalanced, the result is simply to leave one blinking and confused. Intended to be a mood-setter, the final product is instead the antithesis of film; it makes what you've seen LESS understandable and completely unrelatable. Add in the constant darkness from the title and your final product is more film strip than cinema. At no point was this author ever able to place himself into the scene and become a subject of the director's world, instead remaining in constant analysis mode which is just not that enjoyable and ultimately undoes all of the director's technique.Watching this movie is akin to buying a car with a bad transmission. All those wonderful parts that do work are completely over-matched by the nagging and constant problem that rides shotgun on every trip.

I don't normally write reviews on IMDb, but after watching this movie I felt compelled to just point out the unrealistic decision making of the characters. Warning Spoilers!OK the concept and the creature are good. It is a different kind of take on the vampire. It's all wraith like and any source of light not just the sun, hurts it. Cool idea! That's why I give this movie four stars.It goes to hell from there. First off who's house are they in? It seems likely that whoever owns the house is probably the one who staked the vamp and buried it in the field. I'm thinking this because of all the motion detector lights everywhere and the fact that the house is all lit up inside. It's not likely do be the house of the dude digging in the field because why in the hell would he leave all the lights in his house on as he goes out to work in the field? It doesn't bother me that the couple comes to the house to help the strange acting man. The house is still the best option for them to get help with their car. It does bother me that once the man attacks them and runs off instead of looking for a phone in the home, or just plain staying there because a man just attacked them and ran off into the dark, they decide to follow him outside and then try to go back to their car! Umm, hello someone just attacked you. Why not look for a phone and call the cops? Also, what is going back to their car going to do? It's still stuck! Once they've been attacked by the big vamp and are on the second floor with the light (by the way it takes them WAY to long to figure out that the creature is harmed by light)they don't assess the situation, look for more light sources (there were candles in the room next to the hallway they where in), and or arm themselves. I mean how hard is it to break off a table leg to use as a club?The lack of looking for more light sources is a constant problem in this movie. They find one light source and go, "ok this is all we need" Because the creature won't try and destroy it or anything! When the main character is in the barn and shuts off the lights, I assume it is to try and trap the vamp like she did with her boyfriend before. The problem is she shuts off the lamp and the STEPS AWAY FROM THE LIGHT SWITCH!!!! This makes no sense at all! Also there were two hanging lamps in this room. Even if the vamp took out the one lamp when he grabbed it she still could have turned on the light! WTF!?Finally, at the end she makes the torch and has a lantern and decides to go off on foot. In the next scene she has ditched the torch and just is using the lantern. Once again these characters don't seem to get that with a monster that is harmed by light more is better! When you see her leaving the barn the sun is clearly starting to rise. There is light on the horizon, but for some reason takes a really long time to come up. The character also chooses to walk through a dark fissure in the ground instead of staying on the open surface where she would be able to see everything around her. She does have light at this point after all!This movie had a lot of potential, but when characters do stuff that doesn't make sense over and over again it makes it tough for anyone to like it! In the end these character's actions were driven by the demands of the plot and not how a person would react to the situation.

This isn't a bad movie. The acting is great, the film looks big budget, which is always nice. I'm a scared cat and would I say this movie was scary? Not too much. But it did have some good scares and it isn't a complete waste of your time. If you like vampires this is a vampire movie. I think this movie could have been one of the greats in the genre if they had added some dialogue and built up the suspended that way. It's all action, not psychological and I like to both. It was still intriguing and could have been amazing like I said if they had put a story line in there with some back ground and built it up like I said. Like knowing what exactly it was or who it was chasing them and what happened to the farmer would have been nice.. It depends . Lots of people don't like to think to much about their horror and this will def appeal to that crowd. With good actors it's hard to make a terrible movie. I loved parts of Ishtar for instance. This movie has great actors and it saved it from being a not good movie. Overall I say this is def worth a watch on Netflix. I just got done watching "Deep in the Darkness". That movie had great reviews and I thought it was awful. The acting was terrible. And I just thought it was a disaster. So maybe I'm biased , I don't know. This one is very much a stretch above that monstrosity.