PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Let me start out by saying that I am no stranger to extreme horror films. I absolutely believe that there is a place in cinema for films like Salò, A Serbian Film, Trauma, and one of my favorite films, Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible (read my defense of extreme horror article HERE). I’m also a fan of the surreal or weird as I’m a massive David Lynch fan and loved Emiliano Rocha Minter’s We Are the Flesh (read about my top 10 favorite weird horror films HERE). With that in mind, I sat down to check out Guerrilla Metropolitana’s new film Dariuss.
Synopsis:
A family in rural Essex faces devastating grief after losing their young daughter. Through found footage and experimental filming, their descent into darkness unfolds in disturbing ways.
Oh boy. While the subject matter of Dariuss didn’t bother me (I am really jaded at this point), let me issue a very loud warning to everyone else that this is an extreme film with explicit content. Now about that content… I have seen worse material (the first 15 minutes of the Chilean film Trauma – read our interview with the filmmaker HERE) presented much better.
The very best extreme films have balance – they will give you interesting characters and a coherent storyline to go with the sex and violence. Even during the appalling events of We Are the Flesh, I cared enough about the boy and girl to keep engaged in the story. If Metropolitana had just fleshed out the plot a little more in Dariuss, I might actually care about any of these characters. If I hadn’t read the synopsis, I honestly wouldn’t have had the slightest idea what was going on. Few films can hold up with no real plot and this is not one of them. It’s one thing to make a film just to make a statement but if you want your film to stand the test of time, you need to engage the audience, not just shock them.
And always a pet peeve of mine: why is this film so dark? Some of us are getting old, and no film watcher likes to squint at the screen. That said, there are some truly beautiful images here, and I liked the use of no dialogue. But let’s talk about the sound for a minute. Ambient sounds in films can be more effective than dialogue sometimes – the film YellowBrickRoad is a masterclass in using sound to terrorize the cast and the viewer. Unfortunately, the sound used in Dariuss was repetitive at best and downright noxious at worst.
I get that the filmmaker had a vision; I just don’t particularly think it’s a great one. But there is a lot of potential here, and with more time and experience, I see Guerrilla Metropolitana making more interesting films in the future.
Dariuss is a miss for me.
