‘Lovely, Dark, and Deep’ Movie Review [Fantasia 2023]: An Eerie Walk Through Nature
Photo from Fantasia International Film Festival
From Jeff Nelson
Lovely, Dark, and Deep leisurely sneaks up on you with its narrative and setting’s use of the great outdoors. It’s a mysterious slow burn that acts more as a warning than it does as a puzzle to figure out, using the primal fear of the darkness and the unknown to drive its themes.
Lennon (Georgina Campbell) is a new recruit as a back-country ranger, working at a camp planted deep in the woods. She feels alienated from her peers as a result of circulated rumors that loom above her social interactions. However, Lennon has her own motives for taking the job, dedicated to uncovering the truth of a terrible tragedy that tracks back to her childhood.
Writer/director Teresa Sutherland’s screenplay sticks Lennon on a retrospective island of sorts, separate from all those around her, instilling a sense of alienation and loneliness that carries through the film. She remains professional through her interactions with colleagues and people in need of help. Still, her mind is set on the nightmarish calamity of the past that forces her to question reality.
At times, Lennon feels like a blank slate for viewers to place themselves within the story. The characters are underwritten to make room for Sutherland’s theme. Lennon’s superior, Zhang (Wai Ching Ho), refers to the familiar quote, “Take only memories, leave only footprints, kill only time,” which ultimately transforms into words of warning beyond simple instruction. The philosophy of humanity on nature is where the film digs a bit deeper.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is more unsettling than outright scary, tricking the mind with what goes bump in the night. Eerie imagery lurks in peripheral areas of the frame, striking feelings of uneasiness throughout the 87-minute runtime. Sutherland’s direction combines terrors from the past and present, combining them into a haunted forest landscape with fantastical elements.
Barbarian star Campbell is a compelling lead, once again demonstrating her ability to lead genre fare. Many of her interactions take place over the radio, leaving her in solitude to find the fear in a landscape shrouded in darkness. Meanwhile, Ho’s Zhang and Nick Blood’s Jackson also deliver meaningful moments out of their minor roles.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is light on characterization, but it takes a chilling stroll through the horrors of nature that creeps beneath the skin. Sutherland has a perspective on a familiar topic, making a cautionary film that warns of human’s touch on the natural beauty of the world. It just might fight back.
Rating: 3/5
Lovely, Dark, and Deep played at Fantasia 2023 on July 23rd, 2023.
