Shudder Saturday: Dark Summer (2015)

After being found guilty of stalking a young woman, Daniel (Keir Gilchrist) is sentenced to some time spent under house arrest. He's not allowed access to computer devices or social media either. He breaks the rules immediately, of course, with the help of a couple of good friends. And then the woman he has been stalking gets in touch with him, allows him to witness a horrific event, and things start to get spooky and odd.

There's a moment in Dark Summer when one of the main characters mentions Disturbia, another film that features a main character under house arrest. All that moment does is serve to remind you of how enjoyable Disturbia is, and how you could spend time rewatching that rather than watching this flat and unimaginative chiller.

Written by Mike Le, this is a turgid mess of familiar horror movie tropes. You get the jump scares, most of them in apparent dream sequences (but, hey, there are times when the main character cannot be sure if he was dreaming or not, of course), you get a mystery element to be investigated, and you get a finale that thinks it is being clever with a couple of twists or turns that most will see coming a mile away. Le hasn't written anything else of note, from a quick skim of his filmography, and I can't say that I will ever look forward to any of his future projects, going by his laziness here.

Even the main premise just feels thrown together haphazardly. Okay, this kid needs to be under house arrest. Let's say his mother is away on business so that his friends can immediately visit him. And we can have them able to connect him to the internet from another area. And let's not bother about the practical side of things, the HORROR will carry everyone along just fine.

That would be possible. If there was actual horror, or even thrills, here that worked. None do. Alongside the lazy script, you get direction from Paul Solet that feels genuinely disinterested in anything going on. That's more disappointing than the weak script because Solet has done some good work elsewhere (mainly Grace, the 2009 feature that expanded his 2006 short, and his segment in Tales Of Halloween). I wonder whether he realised at some point that he couldn't do enough with the script to even polish this turd and just decided to finish the thing as painlessly as possible.

Peter Stormare appears in the cast, setting up the house arrest and explaining the rules, and he's the best of the bunch. Stella Maeve also does well, in the role of Abby (a good friend to Daniel), and Maestro Harrell is okay as the other main friend, Kevin. Gilchrist, however, is a weak lead. He's not very likeable and doesn't seem worth rooting for, even as things get more and more dangerous and your perception of certain events is changed. Gracie Gillam (billed as Grace Phipps) is okay as Mona Wilson, the woman who Daniel took a bit too much interest in.

Some may think I am being unduly harsh on this one, a film that simply wants to provide a bit of teen-centric chills and jumps. No. There's no excuse for this level of laziness, and I resent it more than so many other failings that a movie could have.

3/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.