Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Dark and The Wicked [Blu-ray]

Top positive review

If you're a more nuanced horror film fan, this film is for you

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2020

For the rest of you that gave this film a bad review, I suggest something a little easier to follow like 'Sleepy Hollow' or 'Nightmare on Elm Street 3'. The Dark and the Wicked is about the unpredictable and un-understandable nature of pure evil. For those of you who loved Kubrick's 'The Shining', Friedkin's 'The Exorcist', and Von Trier's 'Antichrist', this film is for you.

63 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Thomas Rockman Jr.

No Back Story, No Premise, Weak Plot, & No Payoff

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2020

"The Dark & the Wicked" is one of the worst horror movies I've seen in a long, long time.

There is no back story. There is no original premise. The film has a weak plot. It's a collection of cheap tricks, especially of a dead mother walking around naked—spooking her daughter and son on a remote Texas farm.

The movie is neither dark nor wicked. It makes no sense. In the end, there is no payoff.

Director Bryan Bertino needs to take a remedial "How to Create Suspense" class and a "How to Write an Effective Screenplay" class.

36 people found this helpful

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If you're a more nuanced horror film fan, this film is for you

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2020

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63 people found this helpful

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Thomas Rockman Jr.

No Back Story, No Premise, Weak Plot, & No Payoff

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2020

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36 people found this helpful

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D. Bradshaw

The Rental Cost Is Scarier

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2020

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If you like movies that don't answer any questions about what's going on and leaves you hanging at the end, this is the movie for you. Sure there are some creepy moments here and there, but there's a lot of waiting for something to happen and no connection to any of the events that take place. Why are we here? How did this all start? Who are these people? It would have been nice if they gave you just a bit of background or something, but you don't get any answers about what's going on and you sure as hell don't get any real resolution at the end (unless you should just assume that everyone is dead which might be a fair guess).

33 people found this helpful

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Mark Beckford

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2020

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I was excited to see Bryan Bertino's latest offering. "The Strangers" was an interesting classic introducing masked home invaders in the most unsettling of ways. "The Monster" was a better-than-expected as an estranged mother and daughter are stranded in their car in the woods while being stalked by a monster.

"Wicked's" Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic score was a solid (90%/72) and user reviews were ok (3.2 on IMDB). But for me, it fell completely flat as I kept waiting for something to connect the disparate disturbing scenes and story-line together.

Many movies try to tease the viewer with unreliable narrators, leaving them to ponder whether what is happening is supernatural or all in the characters head. "The Babadook," "Black Swan," and "The Lighthouse" are examples of movies that do this right. Unfortunately, this doesn't.

It's clearly something supernatural that is haunting everybody but beyond some gory and violent scenes (all of which are well done), the movie is just too ambiguous in a very frustrating way.

18 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Not Worth Your Time

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2020

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The fact that this film has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes is absurd. This just isn't worth renting or purchasing. The ending is pretty cliché. The Dark and the Wicked is just a haphazard mashup of a bunch of horror movie tropes and jump scares. It hints at the demonic, but never really unpacks that theme to its fullest potential. There was space to delve into each of the main characters with a bit more detail, but we never get to see much of anything that makes the protagonists' circumstances compelling or worth caring about. This whole thing just misses the mark. This kind of horror movie might appeal to those who seldom get into the genre or jump scare-prone individuals, but for most people, this is going to be pretty disappointing. The Dark and the Wicked is yet another example of how NOT to leave an audience with unanswered questions. There’s a right way to do it, but this film lacks any sense of intrigue or mystery. There are a few creepy scenes, sure, but they don't spill over into an overwhelming sense of dread or foreboding. Whatever Rotten Tomatoes sees in this beyond me. I guess there's a bit of Hereditary-like imagery, which doesn't help, but even the slightest hint of Ari Aster’s style tends to hypnotize the critics, which is a really annoying aspect of the horror genre nowadays. For the rest of us, this blows.

19 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Watch alone, in the dark, if you dare!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2020

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Absolutely horrifying. Probably scariest movie of the year!!

17 people found this helpful

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Matthew Girard

Great and Almost Legendary

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2020

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This was a great horror flick and comes within centimeters of being a legendary horror movie. It's only fault is that it tries to connect what are some extremely well paced, frightening and compelling horror scenes with a metaphor. This seems to be the trend, but the very act of trying to diminishes the film just a little bit from the likes of Hereditary or The Exorcism. That's partially because it's been tried a lot by a lot of other movies, and also because the scares would be better served as building up to a finale which isn't predictably representative of the human emotional condition. Sometimes it's better to let people pick apart a film for meaning than it is to insert one in bold.

Also, the only other fault is there isn't enough exposition. There seems to be a trend away from exposition in film making, but a film without exposition is mostly just photography (cinematography if I wasn't being purposefully overly expressive). Exposition is cheap, free and effective. What was this demon, and please don't tell me that naming the demon removes the metaphor because every demon prince is a metaphor while each their stories is a tale of the human condition. Name your demons, tell their story, exposition is cheap use it, save special effects for a dramatic finale and avoid relying too much on atmosphere.

If the director follows the above advice in the future he may just become a top horror director.

10 people found this helpful

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Renald Resmini

Sum of all fears = fatiguing

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2020

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Central premise is similar to that of Billy Senese's The Dead Center. While that involves an urban setting with death spiraling from a single patient, this psychological supernatural chiller is rustic and remote. Brother and sister return to their parent's farm to assist mother who is caring for ailing father, who unbeknownst to the siblings is under spiritual siege of a supernatural force. A force that threatens the reality of those who come in contact with the bed-ridden hospice patient. Bryan Bertino (director of the strangers and the monster) piles on a barrage of eerie imagery, apprehension engine noises, jump scares all to fatiguing non-effect as there's little in the way of respite and with the constant piling on of real and imagined horrors witnessed by the family simply renders a film lacking tension. Nothing residing within the farm is anything a mildly seasoned horror vet hasn't already witnessed before; but for an evening wanting nothing other than fright fare with some gory elements you could do worse. There are noteworthy scenes but, again, nothing new here simply packaged with everything and the kitchen sink.

8 people found this helpful

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I Review

I’m betting this movie will scare you.

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2020

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I love horror movies. The unfortunate thing is that most of them are really not very good. It’s extremely rare for me to watch a horror film and actually get scared, feel uncomfortable or unsettled.

This movie, in my opinion is a 10/10. It’s disturbing, suspenseful, creepy and spooky. I’m stunned that it’s currently sitting at 6.1 on IMDB. I watched it based on rotten tomatoes 90% and after viewing the trailer I decided it would be my watch for the night.

I fully anticipate this movie being a cult classic...it’s that good.

5 people found this helpful

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Indie Film Buff

Outstanding Horror and Suspense Film-

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2020

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Outstanding - Very Well Done!

I'm a big fan of Bertino. He directed the masterful THE STRANGERS original and the sequel as well as THE MONSTER. Dark and Wicked is OUTSTANDING on every level.

Tristan Nyby's cinematography is brilliant, rich, ominous and powerful, as are the performances and a super tight script.

Bertino knows how to milk every last ounce of tension and suspense from each scene and keeps it up till the end.

He is a master of suspense.

Blu Ray Sharp and Clear but Special Features are in short supply. With a stated 13 Million budget at least there could be some extra features and BTS footage but instead it's a grainy Zoom interview with the leads. That being said, a lot is covered in the interview but I would have liked to see more behind the scenes.

4 people found this helpful

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The Dark and The Wicked [Blu-ray]

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