by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Lauren Grimson, Rodger Corser
Intro:
Imperfect but alive, and crackling with creative verve.
It’s always exciting to have a new film from director, Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, Gods of Egypt). The visionary Aussie auteur, renowned for being both extremely talented and provocatively outspoken, has moved away from the mainstream studio system after the disappointing critical and commercial reception to Gods of Egypt in 2016. Since then, he’s released numerous short films – both experimental and traditional, formed a new production company, the Heretic Foundation, and even launched a streaming service that specifically caters to short films, Vidiverse. It’s on that streaming service that Proyas has dropped his latest effort, the long(ish) short film Dark Sister, a gloomy gothic horror with plenty to recommend it.
Dark Sister is the story of Alice (Lauren Grimson) a young woman who has recently entered into matrimony with the rather stiff, taciturn Leonard (Rodger Corser). Alice really wants to give Leonard a kid, but no luck so far, and she spends a lot of time dreamily exploring the sprawling grounds of her estate at night. It’s on one of these nocturnal perambulations that she meets the strikingly familiar-looking Isla (also Lauren Grimson) and that’s when things start getting weird and scary.
Dark Sister is an old-fashioned film. Strikingly so. It’s set in a flowy dress/suits at breakfast time period, and moreover, feels like a short lifted from the sumptuously shot Hammer horror era. Lauren Grimson is absolutely terrific in dual roles and really anchors the film and the direction is as stylish and atmospheric as you’d expect from Proyas.
There are moments of slight uncanny valley, mind you. Dark Sister is shot in a virtual studio using a combination of LED panels, green screens and other digital trickery and sometimes it doesn’t quite feel right. The day shots, in particular, are the biggest culprit here, whereas the night sequences drip with gothic style. This also might just be an age thing, as younger audiences weaned on shows that also use virtual studios like The Mandalorian will likely not have the same issue as your humble, aged word janitor here.
Dark Sister is lean in terms of runtime, but manages to pack a lot of intrigue and intensity.
Short films are funny things. Almost every director cuts their teeth on them, hones their craft through them and improves as an artist because of them and yet other than a scattered selection on Youtube, they’re impossible to find in one place. Vidiverse changes that and is likely to be an invaluable resource for students at film school, producers looking to hire a hungry up-and-coming director for their projects and just straight up film geeks and cinephiles who want to watch something that doesn’t feel blurted out of the corporate orifice of safe, consumer product.
And Dark Sister is a strong example of what can be achieved when art is being created without a safety net and arbitrary bureaucratic constraints. Imperfect but alive, and crackling with creative verve.
Dark Sister is streaming on the revamped and currently dirt cheap Vidiverse: https://www.vidiverse.com/
