Where Darkness Dwells (2025) Review
Where Darkness Dwells (2025) Review
A missing person’s case takes a sinister turn when an ambitious reporter goes searching for answers only to descend into a mind-bending haze of survival and paranoia in new genre blending Lovecraftian horror.
Discover Where Darkness Dwells in Michael May’s (Ghosts of the Ozark) mind-bending, psychological thriller where Lovecraft meets folk horror in terrifying new ways.
Following its festival run, this twisted tale starring Tara Perry (12 Hour Shift, The Fresh Beat Band), Katie Parker (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Haunting of Hill House) and Scott Dean (12 Hour Shift, In Flight) is set to arrive on UK digital 21 September, courtesy of GrimmVision.
I found the first third of Where Darkness Dwells the most compelling, as investigative journalist Trish Bostwick (Tara Bostwick) delves into a missing-person case. It sets things up brilliantly: a shady asylum tucked away in New England immediately promises plenty of potential for thrills and chills. Unfortunately, what follows never quite matches the impact of this intriguing opening.
Cloaked figures soon begin roaming the woods at night, while fleeting glimpses of a beast suggest that something considerably more sinister is lurking in the darkness. On paper, these ingredients should make for an increasingly gripping horror, but instead the film begins to feel as though it has simply packed too much into its relatively lean ninety-minute running time. Its ambitions appear to outweigh its ability to develop each idea effectively.
The narrative repeatedly shifts direction, moving from the missing-person investigation to Trish’s increasingly perilous encounters in the surrounding woodland, before eventually steering towards a ritual-based climax. The story seems to shapeshift every thirty minutes, and with each pivot, the elements that initially drew me in become increasingly sidelined. The resulting tangents don’t always sit comfortably together, leaving Where Darkness Dwells feeling less cohesive than its promising opening suggests.
Where Darkness Dwells is on UK digital 21 September from GrimmVision
