Review by Annie Riordan
Hands up, all who agree that the “cabin in the woods” genre has worn out its welcome.
Hands up now, who is sick to death of the “found footage” deluge?
Okay, good. Now I have one more to add to the list: the “sweet faced little girl who is actually evil incarnate” plague which has been mutating and growing ever more annoying since the terrible remake of Ringu hit screens back in 2002.
I really did want to like Dark Touch as I’d heard nothing but positive things about it and went in with absolutely zero expectations. But I was also one of the two people who did not care for director Marina de Van’s previous effort Don’t Look Back (2009). I also sat through and reviewed two other Irish tales of spooky little girls recently (the stunningly weaksauce Daisy Chain (2008) and the grimly lovely Wake Wood (2010)) so perhaps I should have skipped this one, being burned out and already slightly prejudiced. But I didn’t. And here we are.
Another small, quaint village in rural Ireland. Another cherubic child, with large Hummel-esque eyes and cheery pink cheeks. This time her name is Niamh (pronounced like Eve, only with an N at the front) and she’s suffered as much as any child can at the age of eleven. Her parents have been murdered in a most brutal fashion. Her baby brother, whom she tried so hard to save, has also expired. A solemn Neve is taken in by a sympathetic couple with two children of their own. They honestly believe they can make Niamh happy and return a semblance of normality to her shattered life. But her tragic loss is just the icing on the cake. Niamh shows all the signs of having been repeatedly and systematically abused, both physically and sexually, for years. But she won’t speak of it, and resists all attempts made to assure and comfort her. As her moods shift violently, her new foster family realizes they are ill equipped to deal with such a damaged child, and their thinning patience with Niamh seems to be leading right back into the cycle of violence from whence she came.
The film makes no secret of the fact that Neve is a powerful telekinetic, and that it is she who was responsible for the death of her parents. That much is revealed to us in the early scenes of the film, so I’m not ruining anything for you by telling you. But it is this early revelation that kind of ruins the rest of the film. WE know what’s going on, and waiting for everyone else to find out is tedious to the point of frustration. Instead, the film tries for another shocking reveal at films end, one which has absolutely no build up and comes off more as a “wtf?” moment rather than the “omg!” it really wanted to be. This sharp veer in the final 10 minutes or so is jarring to say the least, coming as it does without warning or sufficient time in which to adjust to the arc. Suddenly, it’s just there, and you’re supposed to accept it. I didn’t. 80 minutes of dramatic build up just sort of peters out, steamless and limp. I’ve had overboiled potstickers that were more palpable than this uninspired plot twist.
Ultimately, this is a film confused. It wants to be Carrie, Scanners and The Fury, with a little bit of 2005’s The Dark (oh hey, look it that – I thought of another British movie about a spooky little girl!) smeared over the top. But it never really tries to be a horror film. It insists upon being a psychological drama, in which the supernatural elements are treated – rather glaringly, and not unlike the proverbial Elephant in the Room – as an afterthought. It’s not scary, or sympathetic, nor are any of its characters particularly likable, with the exception of a pregnant social worker who is dropped about halfway through the film, never to be seen again.
Please, can we put the “creepy little girl” genre to bed now? I mean, really – both Daveigh Chase and Jodelle Ferland, the original CLG’s, if you will – have entered their twenties. They’ve grown up. Time for this tired genre to do the same.
Dark Touch is out now in the US from MPI Home Video.