DARKNESS (TMA)

(A.k.a. DARKNESS; TMA)

A high energy performance from a female-fronted rock band opens the film in almost operatic style, interspersed with alarming scenes of a child being held against his will and a quick-but-effective eye-poking that will catch you off-guard. Are both disturbing memories from a previous life?

The band finishes its performance and retire backstage for the obligatory party. As the booze flows, it becomes apparent that band member Marek (Ivan Franek) is leaving them to return to his old family house which he has now inherited. It's a spooky old place, miles from anywhere, that doesn't even have its own address. Handy, if you're wanting to avoid paying the bills ...

The following morning, Marek arrives at the dilapidated old wreck of a house and makes his way through the padlocked entrance. It needs a lot of work doing. But, it's his.

As he peers through a dust-encrusted window, Marek harks back to his childhood and playing outdoors with his bullying older sister Tereza. Shifting these memories aside - represented as happier times, judging by their colourful presentation compared to the drab greys used to illustrate the present tense - Marek sets about doing the property up with the aim of pursuing a new career there as a painter.

But then, things start to happen that begin to unsettle the recovering druggie. The locals in the nearby village warn him against staying at the old family home, which has apparently been empty for some years. Objects are hurled through the windows. Taps seem to develop a life of their own.

Despite all of this, Marek seems happy. He's found the inspiration required to paint and, although his memories of his childhood remain sketchy at best, he writes a letter to his institutionalised sister in the hope of meeting up with her once more.

This introduces him to postal worker Lucy (Lenka Krobotova), who he recalls has the same Christian name as a girl he used to know locally as a child. They become friends, and Marek shares with her his thoughts on Tereza, his childhood and his present predicament.

But as his dreams become more explicitly bizarre (visions of Tereza with a gouged eye) and events in his current life grow ever stranger (including a wonderful lesbian scene), Marek begins to fear his new home and the truth it seems determined to reveal to him ...

DARKNESS T.M.A. is an interesting little film, energetic and constantly visually stylish. The cast are inventive without ever being fussy, lending each role a quirkiness that is memorable but never forced.

As a ghost story, it unfolds in perhaps a laborious manner. But, at the same time, I must commend the film for not bowing to convention. Rather than following expected routes, DARKNESS T.M.A. teases while always progressing the plot, by way of revelling in its bizarre periphery characters who help to expand on the commentary that Czech director Juraj Herz is offering.

Herz, of course, will always be best known for the brilliant 1969 film THE CREMATOR. DARKNESS T.M.A. is not on a par with that masterpiece but, judged on its own merits, it is an engaging oddity that ultimately rewards those willing to stick with its slow-burning, metaphor-heavy mystery.

The build-up is better than the pay-off but that's not too great a concern, DARKNESS T.M.A. is still stylish and atmospherically unique enough to leave the viewer feeling satisfied. It only fails to deliver if you're expecting it to fall into modern trappings of gore and gratuitous nastiness. It's much more refined than that, I'm afraid.

This screener disc from Vicious Circle Films is fairly basic. It opened with a static menu that simply offered the option of viewing the film with or without English subtitles. I imagine there's more to the actual retail disc.

Anyhow, the film looked good in an uncut anamorphic widescreen transfer. Colours were, for the most part, muted and rather subtle. This appears to be natural and adds to the film's visual ambience.

The Czech 2.0 audio was good too, and the optional English subtitles performed their task well.

An engrossing thriller that occasionally crosses over into horror motifs, DARKNESS T.M.A. is a restrained observation of past trauma, guilt and redemption that manages to disturb thanks to its careful set-up and some keenly observed characters. Herz remains a great director to this day, and his style continues to bring an enjoyably unique European flavour to proceedings.

Often stunning on a visual level, well-acted and graced by an impending sense of doom. It even boasts a sub-plot concerning Nazi atrocities. But there's something lacking here: DARKNESS T.M.A. falls just shy of that edginess, that dangerous element, that could've elevated it beyond being interesting and into being something genuinely powerful.

Regardless, I enjoyed it and Vicious Circle Films have done a fine job with the film's presentation.

A repeated watch is recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis