OUT OF THE DARK (2014)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Lluís Quílez
Cast: Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman, Pixie Davies, Alejandro Furth, Stephen Rea
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Horror)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 21 May 2015

Synopsis: Sarah Harriman (Julia Stiles), her husband Paul (Scott Speedman) and their six-year old daughter Hannah (Pixie Davies) arrive in Colombia eager and excited to start a new life, as Sarah prepares to take over management of the family’s paper mill from her father, Jordan (Stephen Rea). Settling into a sprawling old mansion, the Harrimans are fascinated to learn about the village’s ancestral lore and traditions, including the tale of the Niños Santos, a group of children martyred by the Conquistadors centuries ago. Even today, the ghosts of the murdered innocents are blamed for any unexplained mischief in the town. The imaginative Hannah begins to explore her new home, wandering into the jungle in pursuit of playmates no else can see. The child’s behavior continues to grow stranger until she falls inexplicably ill. As her parents struggle to find medical care in the remote town, the house is visited by a series of mysterious apparitions and suddenly Hannah vanishes. Sarah and Paul’s frantic search for their lost daughter plunges them into a shadowy supernatural world where they discover the shocking family secret that is at the heart Hannah’s disappearance. To save their daughter, they will have to find a way to make amends for the sins of the past.

Movie Review:

Dead children make scary ghosts. That’s a fact that recent horror films like ‘The Orphanage’, ‘The Others’ and ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ proved, so there’s really nothing that ‘Out of the Dark’, whose poltergeists are also dead children, offers up that we haven’t yet seen. What Spanish director Lluis Quilez does do with his Colombia-shot ghost thriller is transplant these horror tropes from such classics to an exotic location, and in doing so serves up a gripping mystery that will keep you hooked throughout its relatively brief 93 minutes.

The setup is nothing fanciful – a married couple, Paul and Sarah Harriman (played by Scott Speedman and Julia Stiles respectively), along with their young daughter Hannah (Pixie Davies), move to Santa Clara in order that the latter may take up a position in her father’s (Stephen Rea) company. Yet, as a prologue set twenty years ago informs, the house is haunted by the spirits of little children, who make a re-appearance as soon as the family set up residence. Local legend suggests that the ghosts may be linked to an ancient festival known as ‘Los Niños Santos’ (which literally means “The Holy Children” or “Children Saint”), which commemorates the cruelty of the Spanish Conquistadores who had burnt alive the local children some five hundred years ago at a temple site.

As we soon suspect, the legend is no more than red herring – and without revealing any spoilers, let’s just say that it not only has something to do with the person we first see being spooked to his death, as well as Sarah’s father, who is hiding some shady corporate secret from many years before. Though the final reveal won’t come as much of a surprise for horror veterans, Javier Gullon and his two co-writers, David and Alex Pastor, weave a tightly wound mystery around the identity of the bandaged phantoms, especially in keeping their audience guessing just why they are after Hannah in the first place. Suffice to say that it all ties together pretty neatly – even an innocuous game that Paul plays with Hannah every night before she falls asleep turns out to be something meaningful by the end of the appropriately-set climax.

Admirably, Quilez doesn’t resort to jump scares to get a reaction from his audience; instead, he pays attention to build-up, establishing a palpable atmosphere of dread as we wait for something to emerge from the shadows of an elevator shaft or within the bushes that lead into the deep South American jungle or even as we follow a red basketball that emerges out of the blue. Just as wisely, Quilez gets his audience emotionally invested in the story by fully fleshing out the anxiety that both Paul and Sarah face when confronted with the possibility that an unknown evil is after their only daughter. It is also for this reason that, while it may take time for the story to establish itself, Quilez doesn’t leave his audience restless.

Credit also goes to Stiles and Speedman, who turn in better than expected performances for a movie of this calibre and inject a human dimension to the horror; but the real coup here is Rea, whose restrained turn ensures that the late twist does not lose its credibility. The same can be said of this generic but nonetheless effective genre exercise – thanks to some inspired use of location, ‘Out of the Dark’ recycles the usual horror clichés without being derivative, so those looking for a suspenseful horror mystery should find this a satisfying time-filler. 

Movie Rating:

(Generic but nonetheless effective horror mystery that recycles the usual tropes of the genre but makes good use of its exotic Colombian locations to amp up the suspense)

Review by Gabriel Chong