Leofwine_draca DARK NATURE is misadvertised as a slick, sick horror film but in reality it's a talky drama in which very little happens. As such it's something of a tedious watch, lacking in both interest and intent, a film which makes good use of the wild Scottish locations but does absolutely nothing else. The unfolding of the plot is slow and long-winded and the characters are very uninteresting with the actors struggling to give them life. There's really not much reason to watch when there are so few elements of interest in the entire film.

lovecraft231 There's nothing wrong with paying respect to your influences. Many a genre film past and present has done this, and sometimes to great success. It's usually for not though, as many directors trying to respect the directors and movies that they love end up coming off as immature fan-boys or people without an original bone in their body. While Marc De Launay's "Dark Nature" doesn't fall for those traps, it's still a mess.Somewhere in Scotland, a very dysfunctional family is on vacation. There's a bit of a problem though-there's a killer whose knocking people off. Oh, and some of the requisite oddball characters who exist only to be killed show up as well.There are a few things "Dark Nature" get's right. The score is pretty good, some of the cinematography and footage of nature is beautiful, and the gore is pretty cool. That's where the fun ends though, as much of the movie is De Launay paying tribute to the likes of Dario Argento, Mario Bava ("Twitch of the Death Nerve" seems to be the primary influence here,) "Friday the 13th" and old ecological horror films like "Long Weekend." While he manages to thankfully do so without pilfering from said movies, he still gets a whole lot wrong.For one thing, it's never that scary or intriguing. The aforementioned movies and directors managed to create a sense of dread and suspense to go with everything else. However, the director here seems clueless as to how to do that, as he can't even pull off a decent atmosphere. Also, all of the characters are extremely annoying. People like the entomologist and the psychic are supposed to be interesting in an odd way, but they are more annoying if anything. And don't get me started with the family, especially the daughter. So much time is spent with this obnoxious bitch that the viewer is left exhausted.And then there's all of the talk. There's a lot of it here-and let it be known there is a difference between dialog and talk. Dialogue is interesting and helps with the characters. This movie is so talky that there were moments in which I started to remember the films of Andy Milligan-and that's not a good thing. Oh, and let's not forget the whole ecological message in the movie, which in a shocking surprise falls flat. The film wants to be a commentary on man's mistreatment of nature, yet it can't make that work. It instead comes off as a poor man's mix of "Friday the 13th" and Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist." It's a shame that I didn't like the movie, as there are a few neat things in it, and I do think that it had potential to be good. What I got though was a talky, boring mess of a movie. I expect better, and the audience deserves better too. At least it's better than the movies of Dante Tomaselli.

stuartross78 Saw Dark Nature in a busy Glasgow cinema too and enjoyed it. It has a good balance of Hitchcockian suspense and psychotronic-style death scenes i.e. close-ups of axes in heads; humorous expressions of shock on actors' faces. Some nods to Herschell Gordon Lewis in there too maybe. Yes, you can tell it was made on a small budget and the acting at times was a little bit suspect but the location is stunning and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the movie, which is the point I guess considering its title. Some nice music included in it too. As mentioned in one of the other posts, the use of the bear trap could possibly be the finest in cinema history.

jayhayden5 Hi there, saw this at cine world on Friday, it was packed, which is something special for 'local produce' above the blockbusters!! Loved the genre nods and homages to argento and co. Creepy and funny and looked stunning. Story was a bit thin but that comes with the territory and a few bits of 'hammy' acting were well overshadowed by the brilliant Mackenzie guy and Imogen Toner who the daughter, pair of them well scary! Great scenery too and locations but don't know if the film's content will help the tourist industry at all! Punches well above it's meagre budget in my book in all departments! Definitely worth checking out for genre fans and those further afield! Good effort!