Review: The Dark Within

Let’s talk about dream logic. It’s a narrative tool that has a long history, dating as far back as fiction has existed and has featured prominently in many cinephiles’ favorite films. The works of Frederico Fellini and David Lynch are the most obvious examples, but dream logic doesn’t have to be quite that dense. Sometimes it’s as simple as Lucio Fulci’s kinda dumb, kinda brilliant, plenty bloody filmography, or maybe we could go a little more mainstream with something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Basically, dream logic muddles the details while striving for a greater purpose, much like the logic found in a dream.

The Dark Within is not like any of those movies, but does play with a sort of dream logic while tormenting its protagonist, edgy painter and psychic Marcus Blaine (Paul Flannery). In this case, it’s sort of Jacob’s Ladder and Scanners giving birth to a messy little Evil Dead baby. Sorta. In truth, it’s much like any low budget straight-to-DVD psychological horror movie and, if we’re all being totally honest with ourselves, uses dream logic as a means of expanding a slight premise into a feature length flick ready for the comforting embrace of Walmart shelves.

As a baby, Marcus shows mysterious psychic abilities. His father, Andrew Blaine (Niko Foster), is a scientist working on a secret government (?) project dealing with psychic abilities and some sort of demonic being. Years later, Marcus is a troubled adult contending with a contentious relationship with his ex-girlfriend Sarah (Kendra Carelli) and the disappearance of his parents. Per his psychiatrist Dr. Norton (Stephanie Lynn Styles), Marcus travels to his parents’ cabin in the woods and from there enters a bizarre mix of reality, dreams, and psychic phenomena.

That’s not too bad of a plot line, and aside from the opening shot featuring a subtitle reading “Udisclosed Military Facility” (a typo which was hopefully fixed between this screener going out and the actual release), things start off fairly promising. Niko Foster, who works predominantly as a producer, isn’t exactly great as the mysterious papa bear, but his wooden performance doesn’t impede an otherwise intriguing prelude. Between the mysterious testing of some well-dressed subject, the psychic kid drawing creepy pictures, and CGI that’s actually competent, my hopes were set fairly high for this one.

And then the rest of the movie happened.

To be fair to director David Ryan Keith, this is definitely a step up from 2014’s The Redwood Massacre, a film I honestly couldn’t stand watching for more than five minutes. For the most part what we have here is a well lit, well shot, and well produced feature that never seems interested in going for much more. The lighting specifically is very by the numbers, resulting in a cheap digital look that, at the very least, looks professional in a technical sort of way. In other words, it’s bland.

Are there worse things to be than bland? Well, with dream logic being your primary storytelling method… no. While The Dark Within certainly flirts with Evil Dead-esque hijinks and features all sorts of narrative gotcha moments, none of them really make for anything either entertaining or intellectually stimulating. While a hidden narrative could well be there to delight repeat viewers, who’s honestly going to watch this more than once?

Luckily there are some positives. Every so often something vaguely horrifying will happen, such as a bin full of bloody tissues or a face in the woods, and the film will jolt to life for a few moments. Then we return to Marcus being confused in a room and it’ll slow back down. The monster is also pretty inspired, most closely resembling a methed out version of Sam from Trick ‘r Treat.

Paul Flannery, who co-wrote The Dark Within with David Ryan Keith, does an excellent job in the lead. He’s often hampered by his own script and the bland directorial choices, but it’s obvious that he’s a skilled and capable actor with a promising future. In fact, he makes the rest of the limited cast feel all the more inadequate whenever they share a scene.

While it’s easy to suggest maybe The Dark Within would have worked better with a more straightforward narrative about psychics and the demons who love them, part of me feels like the opposite holds more weight. If the filmmakers had leaned more heavily into their weird side and really ratcheted up the dream logic, I think we would have at least an entertaining ride. Put this guy through the wringer, really dig into his noggin and leave us questioning everything we just saw. That would at least be entertaining, even if it all falls on its face. Instead, we get a forgettable flick with a handful of fun moments that we’ve seen hundreds of times before.