Hold the Dark

Over the time, I’m discovering that Netflix doesn’t mean only good movies. Sometimes it also means average movies and sometimes even bad ones. However, Hold the Dark fortunately belongs among the better part of Netflix production. It has a solid atmosphere, and if it didn’t last more than two hours, the audience wouldn’t have the time to be bored. But as it is, there are moments when the characters act like retards or worse. In the second half of the film, it however gains some pleasant momentum and the ending is nice. The action finale makes it into better average; without it, I might have thought that someone was trying to make a rip-off of Wind River. When watching this film, I didn’t know yet that ‘rip-off’ is Netflix’s favorite word. (13/04/2020)

The ending doesn’t exactly make perfect sense in the context of the characters’ previous motivations, but after all the dark, rationally incomprehensible lupine occultism of the Alaskan wilderness, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the course of the relatively long, roughly drawn story is continuously exciting and captivatingly atmospheric with constant surprising plot twists. I was drawn into it, just like in the case of Wind River, in which, however, everything had a logical place and the plot was precisely taken to a more coherent and thoughtful ending. (20/01/2019)

I guess I expected a perfect viewing experience from the snowy American North, similar to Wind River, but Hold The Dark didn’t quite meet my expectations. The landscape was there, and everyone must admit that snow in detective stories complements the atmosphere well; I can’t fault the film on that account. The actors also delivered commendably, with local police officer James Badge Dale being a surprise. However, the story and the plot just didn’t help much; I was expecting something more refined and convincing. Instead, I got a mix of disgruntled locals, some local mythology, and a few murders. In the end, it didn’t come together at all, resulting in a sudden and especially open-ended conclusion (which was the most frustrating part). A few scenes, where brutality was definitely not held back, pulled the film out of the average gray zone (the impressive M60 vs police squad shootout is a rare sight in films), but it had the potential to become a brilliant genre piece. I give it 65%. (04/11/2018)

An atmospheric thriller that excels with excellent action scenes and a slightly demonic Alexander Skarsgård. Comparisons to Wind River may be fitting in terms of the locations chosen and the murder mystery plot, but otherwise Hold the Dark forges its own path and is more of a meditative thriller with mystery elements than a murder mystery. The plot is told very slowly, but there are some really intense passages and the whole narrative is interestingly framed with metaphors. It's just a pity that the final impression was a bit weaker than I initially expected. (16/10/2018)

It's a shame such a pure and beautifully crafted raw survival drama has such a mind-fuck of a nothing much to say, wannabe mystery screenplay. The main plot line is lacking, but all the other features (set design, atmosphere, action sequences) are excellent. There's been a bit too much of Wind River lately, but it's still an enthralling thing. (17/10/2018)