'Into the Dark' goes back into character-driven thriller territory again following the metaphorical monster madness of 'Pooka'. This feels much more like a spiritual sequel to 'Flesh & Blood' in the sense that almost all of the action takes place in one house and involves a game of cat and mouse between the characters. This episode isn't as creative with its set-pieces as the aforementioned episode two, but it presents four fully realized characters butting heads.
Major props need to go to the main cast of four - Suki Waterhouse, Carly Chaikin, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Melissa Bergland - who carry the entire film on the strength of their performances. You believe them as a group of (fractured) friends reuniting and inevitably falling apart. Waterhouse in particular conveys a mix of seething anger, guilt and jealousy with a palpable intensity. Her facial reactions alone when Chaikin vomits out her smug platitudes are simply priceless. During the first act you're unsure who exactly you should be afraid of and rooting for, Chaikin or Waterhouse. That's how good they are in their roles and that is how good the script is at keeping its cards close to its chest. For a while at least.
Co-writer/director Sophia Takal demonstrates a strong grasp on visual acuity. She brings out the best in her cast and maximizes the screenplay's limited setting by exploiting the starkness and coldness of the house itself. It looks much like an empty shell, almost a show home, and I suppose that plays into the themes of the episode. After all, this is clearly a searing indictment of millennial culture, from the superficiality and mock sincerity of online 'influencers' to the bitterness that rots beneath the back-slapping girl-power platitudes. In fact, this may be the first film I have seen in a while to explicitly explore issues of toxic femininity, which dare not be examined in an age where men are the ones often in the social faux pas hot-seat. 'New Year, New You' is a direct examination of female relationships that bypasses the gender war all together. It is about female behaviors and traits that are quite often downplayed in feminist circles, such as counterfeit camaraderie, emotional manipulations, group-led bullying and personal jealousy. Sure, 'Heathers' and 'Mean Girls' tackled all of this unseemly stuff before, but they were black comedies of the highest order. This is deeply serious stuff and that is what makes the first 50 minutes of 'New Year, New You' so refreshing and compelling. It is already a pretty horrifying movie before the first punch is thrown, simply on a social interaction level. And Takal keeps us on our toes, never quite letting us know where this is going or why Waterhouse's character is acting so barmy and off-kilter.
Unfortunately, all of that intensity and mystery developed during the film's build-up is steamrollered by some woefully far-fetched plot developments. I can buy that the three women want to win a kind of karmic revenge over their narcissistic and successful frenemy. I can even swallow that they would go to the extent of conspiring a new year's invitation in order to set a trap and induce a confession of guilt out of the woman. But when the tables turn on them and said frenemy reveals her true colors, and even suckers in one of the friends into partnering up, any sense of plausibility gets thrown out of the window... in some cases literally.
The reason why 'Flesh & Blood' worked so well is that it set-up and paid off its thrills effectively without ever really straining credibility. It never contrived the behavior or actions of its lead characters for cheap suspense. Everything they do is rooted in logic and plausibility from start to finish. 'New Year, New You' gives us the best drawn characters of the series so far only to lose its grip on them entirely once the horror kicks in. It's a real shame because the first hour of episode four is possibly the best of 'Into the Dark' so far until the final 20-odd minutes go for broke and shatter the strong work up to that point. Don't get me wrong, it still makes for well staged and reasonably tense viewing, I just wish it had stuck with the more psychological approach and ditched all the running around and stabbing.
This is far better than the tonal misfire of 'The Body' and is much more cohesive than the deranged mess of 'Pooka', but falls a few steps short of the more entertaining 'Flesh & Blood'. So far, every episode has given us something different. Long may that trend continue.
I will be reviewing every episode of 'Into the Dark' as they are released. See you next time for 'Down'.
Major props need to go to the main cast of four - Suki Waterhouse, Carly Chaikin, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Melissa Bergland - who carry the entire film on the strength of their performances. You believe them as a group of (fractured) friends reuniting and inevitably falling apart. Waterhouse in particular conveys a mix of seething anger, guilt and jealousy with a palpable intensity. Her facial reactions alone when Chaikin vomits out her smug platitudes are simply priceless. During the first act you're unsure who exactly you should be afraid of and rooting for, Chaikin or Waterhouse. That's how good they are in their roles and that is how good the script is at keeping its cards close to its chest. For a while at least.
Co-writer/director Sophia Takal demonstrates a strong grasp on visual acuity. She brings out the best in her cast and maximizes the screenplay's limited setting by exploiting the starkness and coldness of the house itself. It looks much like an empty shell, almost a show home, and I suppose that plays into the themes of the episode. After all, this is clearly a searing indictment of millennial culture, from the superficiality and mock sincerity of online 'influencers' to the bitterness that rots beneath the back-slapping girl-power platitudes. In fact, this may be the first film I have seen in a while to explicitly explore issues of toxic femininity, which dare not be examined in an age where men are the ones often in the social faux pas hot-seat. 'New Year, New You' is a direct examination of female relationships that bypasses the gender war all together. It is about female behaviors and traits that are quite often downplayed in feminist circles, such as counterfeit camaraderie, emotional manipulations, group-led bullying and personal jealousy. Sure, 'Heathers' and 'Mean Girls' tackled all of this unseemly stuff before, but they were black comedies of the highest order. This is deeply serious stuff and that is what makes the first 50 minutes of 'New Year, New You' so refreshing and compelling. It is already a pretty horrifying movie before the first punch is thrown, simply on a social interaction level. And Takal keeps us on our toes, never quite letting us know where this is going or why Waterhouse's character is acting so barmy and off-kilter.
Unfortunately, all of that intensity and mystery developed during the film's build-up is steamrollered by some woefully far-fetched plot developments. I can buy that the three women want to win a kind of karmic revenge over their narcissistic and successful frenemy. I can even swallow that they would go to the extent of conspiring a new year's invitation in order to set a trap and induce a confession of guilt out of the woman. But when the tables turn on them and said frenemy reveals her true colors, and even suckers in one of the friends into partnering up, any sense of plausibility gets thrown out of the window... in some cases literally.
The reason why 'Flesh & Blood' worked so well is that it set-up and paid off its thrills effectively without ever really straining credibility. It never contrived the behavior or actions of its lead characters for cheap suspense. Everything they do is rooted in logic and plausibility from start to finish. 'New Year, New You' gives us the best drawn characters of the series so far only to lose its grip on them entirely once the horror kicks in. It's a real shame because the first hour of episode four is possibly the best of 'Into the Dark' so far until the final 20-odd minutes go for broke and shatter the strong work up to that point. Don't get me wrong, it still makes for well staged and reasonably tense viewing, I just wish it had stuck with the more psychological approach and ditched all the running around and stabbing.
This is far better than the tonal misfire of 'The Body' and is much more cohesive than the deranged mess of 'Pooka', but falls a few steps short of the more entertaining 'Flesh & Blood'. So far, every episode has given us something different. Long may that trend continue.
I will be reviewing every episode of 'Into the Dark' as they are released. See you next time for 'Down'.