I have a massive soft spot for Lovecraftian horror when it is done well. I’m not a stickler on tone with it either. For every serious effort that I love like Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space, Roger Corman’s The Haunted Palace, and Steven Kostanski & Jeremy Gillespie’s The Void, I also swoon for the comedic delights of Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator and From Beyond, Martin Campbell’s Cast a Deadly Spell, and John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness. As the kids say, I eat it all up. No crumbs left.
Guess what? Mathieu Turi’s The Deep Dark is another keeper.
Centered around a group of miners in France who are tasked with escorting a professor into a dangerous underground area, The Deep Dark is a beautifully shot simmering slice of dread from start to finish. Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, this has just about everything I could want from a Lovecraftian-inspired horror tale. A group of flawed, but determined protagonists? Check. A sketchy professor who knows way more than he is letting on? Check. A dangerous situation with impossible-to-survive odds? Check. An unholy terror slumbering beneath us? Check. Ancient runes and rites? Check.
Need I say more? If I do, I might find myself accidentally writing a Metallica song. While it’s lacking in the sleazy sex that permeates Stuart Gordon’s own classics in this subgenre – that’s not a knock, as it wouldn’t fit here – I find this film far worthier of comparison to Gordon’s own Lovecraftian work than a certain other H.P. adaptation gracing cinemas this week. There’s a sinister underbelly to the minds of men at play here that Stuart often excelled at and Mathieu has picked up the reins on. Plus we’re also gifted some the old school practical effects work on display here that had me grinning from ear to ear.
Arrogance. Claustrophobia. Greed. Madness. Death. All are on the menu that Turi serves up here and, like I said, I ate it all up. No crumbs left. Just like the monstrous demigod that lies within the titular deep dark. Be sure to seek this one out when it comes out next year. You won’t be disappointed.
The Schlocketeer 