Darling

A style exercise rather than a film that would stand on its own legs. Mickey Keating continues his horror creator marathon, where he evidently wants to pay homage to several of his favourite films, this time with a black and white woman in a building with clear references to one well-known abuser. But he doesn’t provide any support to this banal story, it’s just a superficial imitation; an art game with nothing under its relatively effective shell. Long, thoughtful dream glances, a constant psycho-ambient score and hallucinogenic editing by themselves are not enough to build psychological depth. (09.04.2016)

Darling is a pretty good film, but the story presented here is very banal at its core. It is thus evident that the form was prioritized, while the content was not as important because the creators believed that it would be the design that would carry the audience as much as possible. However, I think it's a shame that the form wasn't used to make the story a little bit better. (18.12.2017)