In 2016 small independent Irish-British horror film A dark song proven that you can make one of the best films of the year even when there’s not a lot of money available. All you need is a good idea, talented people, and a creative way to fit material constraints into the storyline. Written and directed by Liam Gavin in his first feature film, A dark song deserves our praise for being a surprisingly realistic and chilling portrayal of dark magic rituals. And the movie only gets more impressive when we realize Gavin only had $50,000 to spare, less than a single scene in some hit productions.
What is “A Dark Song” about?
A dark song follows Sophia Howard (Catherine Walker), a woman mourning the loss of her seven-year-old son, ready to do anything for revenge. This is why Sophia contacts the misogynistic occultist Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram), a man who can guide her through an intricate ritual described in Abramelin’s bookvolume studied by several mystical figures, including Aleister Crowley. As Joseph explains to Sophia when she enlists his services, he cannot be interrupted once the ritual begins. Thus, the two must lock themselves in an old mansion, performing repetitive and stimulating rituals daily. For endless months, Sophia is forced to ingest specific foods, sing specific chants, hold her body in awkward positions, and endure all manner of cleansing practices. Meanwhile, Joseph helps her draw pentagrams and invoke symbols, trying to get in touch with her guardian angel.
Sophia wants to reach out to the supernatural to punish the man who killed her son, and to do so she must comply with Joseph’s orders, putting her mental health and physical integrity at risk. Although there are supernatural elements in A dark song, the film primarily revolves around the two characters inside one location, significantly reducing its required budget. However, A dark song can only be as good because he doesn’t have a lot of money to spend, as this led Gavin to focus on concept creepiness.
‘A Dark Song’s budget constraints made the film better
By locking two people in a house for months, Gavin anticipated the pandemic by four years and also created the perfect environment to explore the human psyche. When Sophia and Joseph are not busy with their daily rituals, they are forced to interact with each other, discussing the limits of faith.
At one level, A dark song is about a woman who will do anything for revenge. Even so, the film shines when it forces audiences to question the magical ritual that Sophia and Joseph have been practicing for months. There is no indication that anything is working, but Joseph insists that leaving the house is dangerous and will put their souls in danger. So, in this impossible situation, how much can Sophia endure before she begins to question the integrity of the occultist? She has a goal and has put all her money and energy into it, so she doesn’t want to give up. Yet how long must she endure the daily abuse before wondering if the ritual even works?
Since A dark song had such a low budget, the focus of the film shifted from supernatural elements to the relationship between the characters and what it says about human behavior. This creative choice also allows Gavin to summon a particular creepiness in each frame of A dark song, while our eyes, eager to witness the fruits of the ritual, scan each image in search of a sign. Like Sophia in the story, audiences also have their faith tested, hoping A dark song will unleash the promised horrors and wonders if they will ever really happen.
‘The magic of a dark song is surprisingly realistic
A dark song is also surprisingly realistic when it comes to the magic ritual itself. Gavin has done his research to reproduce occult symbols in the mansion and transform each piece of the setting into a place of worship and sacrifice. Every day, Sophia has to go through the same number of steps before cleaning, cooking and resting. You can feel the character’s agony as she repeats the same process every day, and that effect wouldn’t be the same if Gavin changed anything in the background.
We have the same set of rooms for most of the duration of A dark song, which contributes to the film’s realism and anxiety-inducing process of performing a ritual that actually works. Magic is frightening when it wreaks havoc on the caster, and A dark song does a fantastic job of showing the real effects of such an intense procedure on the human body. Of course, we wouldn’t be so convinced of the plot if Walker and Oram weren’t such fabulous performers. Yet Gavin directs A dark song with enviable attention to detail, crafting his film as if it were a magical ritual itself.
A dark song eventually pays off, and things will get wacky before the credits roll. Still, that only makes the film’s budget more impressive, as Gavin had to invest most of his $50,000 to bring the third ark to A dark song to live. At a time when every major theatrical release costs hundreds of millions of dollars, Gavin’s feature debut is a testament to the power of creativity before money and an example of how material constraints can become plot points. innovative.
Since the pandemic, we’ve had a flurry of films about people confined to a single setting. Again, A dark song remains unbeatable when it comes to creating goosebumps in a confined space. Since its small budget is intended to pay good actors and let them carry the emotional weight of the film, A dark song is also one of the most realistic horror films. For these reasons, the film deserves far more love than it gets, and it should become a top priority for horror fans and movie buffs who want to witness the wonders a talented filmmaker can create. despite a lack of funding.