Darling (2015)For those who choose to believe in ghosts, the consensus is that the angry spirits which wreak havoc upon the living do so because they cannot let go of the past; they are haunted by their traumatic existence, even beyond death. Even for those who don't believe in the supernatural, the lesson applies to the living, to those haunted by some moment in time which infects the soul, leaving one consumed by the incident when unable to cope--a psychological haunting. Either way, the stain of that suffering is a hex which looms, just as it does for "Darling" (Lauren Ashley Carter), the newest caretaker of a reportedly haunted old house in New York City.
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Darling is a psychological thriller about the eponymous young woman who is tasked by her sophisticated employer, known as "Madame" (Sean Young), to care for this historic house, called the "oldest house in New York City". The historic element also lends itself to the ghost stories and troubled events alluded to Darling by Madame, who reveals the fate of the prior caretaker, who apparently committed suicide. From the start, there is the intonation that Darling is unsettled; from the rapid flashes of disturbing imagery to the sonorous whispers on the audio, to the intense stares of Darling, penetrating through the movie screen, Darling is an character who is perpetually in a state of disquiet. She stalks through the house, from room to room, save for one poised at the end of a narrow, white hallway, its contents a mystery. As she unpacks her belongings, she discovers a necklace with an inverted cross fixed to it, as well as a phrase in Latin etched into the wall: "abyssus abyssum invocat", which translates as "deep calls to deep". These unnerving signs press Darling further down the rabbit hole of what evidently is her fracturing psyche. When a man (Brian Morvant) picks up the necklace on the street after she drops it, she is stricken by frozen terror, but thereafter becomes obsessed with him, even stalking him to a local nightclub to seduce him in her own awkward way, her lipstick and perfume--even her smile--the camouflage of a predator. Darling's breakdown grows more intense by the minute, and eventually leads to a violent incident with the man she calls "Henry", convinced he had done some horrible thing to her in the past. Is Darling possessed? It is a thought which preys upon our impression of her, and the pretense that the house is haunted. She appears to suffer from hysteria, some mental breakdown having been inflicted upon her at some point, one which had not been properly treated. The interesting thing is how Darling also addresses attitudes toward femininity and perceptions of women. We are almost always watching Darling, even staring right at her. Like the butterflies pinned to the wall in the house, she is the focus of our attention, viewed by the film as though under scrutiny, under a bell jar. Later in the film, Darling struggles to clean up the splatters of blood all over the bathroom with obsessive fervor and anxiety, an analog for menstruation. Darling is also torn between two versions of her self: one is the "good girl", with an nearly puritanical, buttoned up blouse; the other, the sexy maneater, who brazenly invites Henry back to "her place" for free drinks, an act which she does in turn to ultimately punish him for accepting her invitation in the first place.
Darling is fundamentally a send-up to the kinds of suspenseful thrillers made by Roman Polanski, specifically the three films informally referred to as the "Apartment Trilogy": Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion, and The Tenant. The scenes bookending Darling with Madame represent a kind of cycle, an effect similar to the one in The Tenant with the increasingly unstable protagonist. Alongside the rumors of evil spirits are also those that the house in Darling hosted witches who tried to conjure the living devil, a similar parallel to Rosemary's Baby. Even the necklace Darling discovers--an inverted cross--recalls the medallion filled with tannis root which Rosemary's wears at the insistence of the Castevets. Additionally, Rosemary's Baby is set in an old structure in New York City, with a black legacy of terrible events, just like the house in Darling. Arguably, the film which Darling bears the most similarity to is Repulsion, in which a young woman with some unclear psychological affliction becomes essentially trapped in her own residence by her fears, her mental state gradually degrading, leading to moments of shocking violence. Like Carol in Repulsion, Darling experiences night terrors, visions of a man violating her, manifestations of her sexual anxieties. She ambles around the apartment as though a tourist at times, a trespasser at others, skulking around at night in her negligee, weary of what molestations lurk in the shadows. Darling also recalls other similar horror movies of the period. The rapid flickering of terrifying visages and the looming presence of evil recalls William Friedkin's The Exorcist, such as when the face of the devil is flashed like a subliminal message. Darling's efforts to tidy up the house following her rampage are reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with Darling experiencing the same kind of struggle Norman Bates endured when he had to clean up after his "mother". And there is no small coincidence in Darling being referred to as "the caretaker" of the haunted abode; Jack Torrence in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining is hired for the same position, a job title which carries numerous implications and associations, under nearly identical circumstances as to those in which Darling is placed. Darling represents that these kinds of classically creepy horror movies, the kind which dig their way into your mind and are filled with a lurking menace, will always find an audience ready to be disturbed at hauntings both supernatural and psychological.
Recommended for: Fans of an eerie and concentrated psychological horror film, an homage inspired by some of cinema's greatest filmmakers and masters of that style.
Darling is fundamentally a send-up to the kinds of suspenseful thrillers made by Roman Polanski, specifically the three films informally referred to as the "Apartment Trilogy": Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion, and The Tenant. The scenes bookending Darling with Madame represent a kind of cycle, an effect similar to the one in The Tenant with the increasingly unstable protagonist. Alongside the rumors of evil spirits are also those that the house in Darling hosted witches who tried to conjure the living devil, a similar parallel to Rosemary's Baby. Even the necklace Darling discovers--an inverted cross--recalls the medallion filled with tannis root which Rosemary's wears at the insistence of the Castevets. Additionally, Rosemary's Baby is set in an old structure in New York City, with a black legacy of terrible events, just like the house in Darling. Arguably, the film which Darling bears the most similarity to is Repulsion, in which a young woman with some unclear psychological affliction becomes essentially trapped in her own residence by her fears, her mental state gradually degrading, leading to moments of shocking violence. Like Carol in Repulsion, Darling experiences night terrors, visions of a man violating her, manifestations of her sexual anxieties. She ambles around the apartment as though a tourist at times, a trespasser at others, skulking around at night in her negligee, weary of what molestations lurk in the shadows. Darling also recalls other similar horror movies of the period. The rapid flickering of terrifying visages and the looming presence of evil recalls William Friedkin's The Exorcist, such as when the face of the devil is flashed like a subliminal message. Darling's efforts to tidy up the house following her rampage are reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with Darling experiencing the same kind of struggle Norman Bates endured when he had to clean up after his "mother". And there is no small coincidence in Darling being referred to as "the caretaker" of the haunted abode; Jack Torrence in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining is hired for the same position, a job title which carries numerous implications and associations, under nearly identical circumstances as to those in which Darling is placed. Darling represents that these kinds of classically creepy horror movies, the kind which dig their way into your mind and are filled with a lurking menace, will always find an audience ready to be disturbed at hauntings both supernatural and psychological.
Recommended for: Fans of an eerie and concentrated psychological horror film, an homage inspired by some of cinema's greatest filmmakers and masters of that style.