A DARK SONG – Unlike a lot of genre product, 2016 indie ‘A Dark Song’ takes a thoughtful approach to the occult. Its use of shadowy esoterica bespeaks a seriousness of intent, and somewhere between that and its claustrophobic set-up lurks an atmosphere of real menace. In it, Catherine Walker plays a woman who has retreated to a remote manor to immerse herself in a gruelling ritual; Steve Oram is the gnostic specialist who will guide her. The mood is set from the start, when we see that Oram is clearly quite a volatile character and Walker isn’t really being very straightforward about her reasons for being there. The tension between the two occasionally spills over into violence, but, more insidiously, it infects the world around them, darkening mundane events and throwaway encounters to the point where they seem charged with threat and significance – a woman whispers to her child in a car park, a bird flies into the side of the house – or perhaps it’s the other way around, and the deepening mood is a consequence of hermetic realities seeping through. ‘A Dark Song’ doesn’t necessarily give us any easy answers, and instead presents its lead character’s descent into murky depths, a journey that eventually crescendos into full-tilt otherworldliness. An impressively sinister slow burn, well worth a look.
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