The Dark And The Wicked < 2024-2026 >

(High for horror, but not for everyone)

Fans of Hereditary , The Witch , and The Blackcoat’s Daughter . Viewers who believe horror should be artful, sad, and deeply uncomfortable. Anyone looking for a masterclass in atmospheric dread. The Dark and the Wicked

This is a career-defining horror performance. Louise is not a typical "final girl." She is weary, brittle, and already half-broken by the weight of familial guilt. Ireland conveys a profound, realistic grief: the exhaustion of caregiving, the anger at being abandoned by her brother, and a growing, primal terror. Her descent from reluctant caretaker to someone barely clinging to sanity is devastating to watch. A single scene where she looks into a dark room and whispers, "I know you're there" is more terrifying than most modern horror films’ entire third acts. (High for horror, but not for everyone) Fans

Bertino excels at turning daily rituals into nightmares. A simple knock on the door. A phone call from a number you know. A knife being used to slice bread. A rocking chair moving on its own. The film’s scariest sequence involves a character alone at night, listening to their mother’s voice call out from the darkness—only to realize the voice is not coming from the house. It’s coming from the barn. The sound design is masterful, warping familiar noises into threats. Weaknesses (Acknowledging Subjectivity) 1. The Brother Problem Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.) is a reactive character. While Louise carries the emotional and physical weight of the horror, Michael mostly wanders the property, looking concerned. He has one or two impactful scenes, but his arc feels underwritten compared to his sister’s. The film's attempts to give him a backstory (a family he abandoned) don’t fully land. This is a career-defining horror performance

The entity in The Dark and the Wicked has no name, no origin story, no exorcism ritual. It simply is . It manifests as a black, horned silhouette, a whisper on the wind, or a beloved face twisted into a snarl. Its cruelty is pointed and psychological: it forces characters to see themselves as failures, to hear the last words of the dying, and to understand that no one is coming to help. The film rejects the notion that faith (a priest), family (the siblings), or violence (a shotgun) can stop it. You cannot fight this thing. You can only wait.