Dr. Samantha Goodman is supposed to spend the weekend with her husband and sister in a winter cottage when an unexpected guest suddenly arrives. The guests name is Harlan Pyne, a sexual offender who Samantha treated, and who is convinced that she conducted unethical experiments on him. With him, Harlan has a young protege to help him out, and the two of them forces Samantha and her family to participate in a series of cruel and twisted games.
I picked up this movie quite recently without having heard a single thing about it. It's weird because usually you are bound to hear something about movies being released, but with The Dark Hours I hadn't heard or seen nothing on the net or anywhere else for that matter. I actually wish that this would happen more often, since then you of course have no expectations whatsoever, and that's always a good way to start out when watching a new movie.
The Dark Hours starts out giving us an idea what Dr. Samantha Goodman do for a living, and that she's surrounded by "crazy" people. Later on we also find out that she has a tumour and that's she's dying, which actually is a pretty big part of the plot itself. She heads to the winter cottage to meet up with her husband and sister, but soon someone's knocking on the door. Outside stands a guy freezing and tells that he were supposed to meet some people at a house nearby who apparently never showed up.
Being the nice people that they are, Samantha and company lets the guy in to warm himself up by the fireplace, but they soon regret that they let the young guy in as he's not as lost as he first seemed to be. It's here the movie takes off, and it starts with a pretty cool and unexpected scene which is actually kinda raw when thinking about it, and you can't help but wonder what's gonna happen next. After that, an old patient of Samantha's shows up and things just tend to get worse from here on out. This patient that is Harlan Pyne, forces Samantha and her family to participate in a few of his games, that all are pretty cruel.
 
When playing these games, there's a lot of tension in the air and it's actually impossible to relax when watching this. It's clever and interesting, but at the same time very cruel, and you are bound to feel for the unlucky characters. It's nothing gruesome or gory, but it's very intense and most of all very realistic which sometimes makes it a bit hard to watch. Still you of course wanna see what's gonna happens next.
Then things take a different turn and the movie becomes something else. The basic story is simple and they could've stuck with that all the way but then it would've also just ended up being an ordinary suspense/horror flick that would not've been that special in the end. Instead, there's a big twist and nothing's like it first seemed to be. I can't really tell you about this as this would totally ruin the movie for those who have not yet watched The Dark Hours. But at least I can say that what happens is clever and makes the whole outcome of the movie so much better. There are of course tons of movies like this with a special twist towards the end but usually it's nothing special, but this one really comes through and is therefore well worth watching.
The acting is totally ok from everyone involved, and Kate Greenhouse who stars as Dr. Samantha Goodman truly stands out. She really captures the role and delivers a great performance that is great to watch. Music in this movie is non-existant, and one would think it might be weird when there's no music to the film itself, but it actually works pretty well and is nothing you really think about till after the movie's finished.
The Dark Hours could best be described as psychological terror instead of just being a horror flick as it's not really horror, thriller is probably a better definition. The gore is, just like the music, non-existant except for one scene that deals with self mutilation and were a finger's being chopped off. It might not sound like much, but it's actually kinda hard to sit through that scene since it's so graphical and a bit hard to stomach. Other than that, the movie relies on psychological terror and offers no real gore or cheap scares for that matter.
Very different compared to most other new horror and thriller flicks that you usually end up watching, so it was really nice with something different for a change. The running time is only 80 minutes and the movie feels kinda short, but still manages to fit every necessary thing in it during it's running time, and is also clever and delivers in the end. Recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Head Games
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Paul Fox
WRITING CREDITS: Wil Zmak
GENRE: Horror, Thriller
CAST: Kate Greenhouse, Aidan Devine, Gordon Currie
COUNTRY: Canada
RUNTIME: 80 min
RATING: 8/10
Dark Hours, The Website/IMDB Click here
Dark Hours, The Trailer Click here
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