JP Nunez
I’ve wanted to see Lovely, Dark, and Deep for a while now. I first heard about the film when it debuted at the Fantasia International Film Festival last summer, but I didn’t get a chance to see it. It’s been near the top of my most-anticipated list ever since. When I found out it was getting a general release, I jumped at the chance to review it. I requested a screener as soon as I could, and I couldn’t wait to sit down and finally give it a watch.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep was written and directed by Teresa Sutherland, and it stars Georgina Campbell, Nick Blood, and Wai Ching Ho. It’s about a woman named Lennon who starts working as a ranger at a national park, and at first, we don’t know much about her. However, as the story goes on, we learn that she experienced a very traumatic loss when she was a child. Her sister mysteriously went missing one day in that same park; the disappearance has haunted her ever since.
Now that Lennon’s a ranger, she gets to help protect others from feeling that same pain. When she finds a missing hiker, something strange happens. Instead of commending her, her superiors reprimand her and say she’ll soon be dismissed from her post. She decides to explore the park further and see if she can discover what’s actually going on.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is essentially a tale of two halves. The first half is fantastic, and it’s anchored by two things—the main character and the pervasive atmosphere. Let’s start with Lennon. She’s played by Georgina Campbell, and if you’re familiar with her work, you won’t be surprised to hear that she’s fantastic in the role.
Campbell is quickly becoming a modern scream queen, with a star-making turn in the 2022 hit Barbarian and an amazing lead performance in this year’s AI thriller T.I.M. Now she can add another notch to her belt with this movie. She just has a knack for making her characters completely believable, and that talent is on full display here. Everything she does and says feels 100% natural, so you’ll have no trouble at all buying into her character.
On top of that, the first half of Lovely, Dark, and Deep is also one of the most delightfully atmospheric films I’ve seen in a while. Director Teresa Sutherland does an excellent job using cinematography, lighting, and sound (as well as silence and darkness) to create an unrelenting atmosphere of dread. You don’t just know something terrible is going to happen, you can feel it in your bones. That atmosphere is built so well that it can make something as innocuous as a deer seem like a menacing harbinger of death. If you’re a fan of atmospheric horror, you’re going to love this aspect of the movie.
However, once we hit the midway point, Lovely, Dark, and Deep takes a steep nosedive in quality. Georgina Campbell’s performance is still great, but the story just goes off the rails. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’m going to have to be vague here, but I can say that the film shoots itself in the foot by removing the element of danger.
The focus shifts from Lennon’s present job as a park ranger to her traumatic past. While she isn’t entirely out of the woods yet (both literally and figuratively!), she’s not in any imminent danger. You could even argue that she’s actually quite safe, and that’s a huge problem because the unknown danger that threatens to engulf Lennon is the best thing about this movie.
The atmosphere tells us in no uncertain terms that whatever resides in this park is not to be messed with, and Georgina Campbell’s fantastic performance makes us sympathize with Lennon and root for her. Even if we’re not scared of this mysterious evil ourselves, we’re still scared for Lennon, and that’s the heart and soul of this entire story. When the second half of Lovely, Dark, and Deep takes an unexpected turn and starts going down a completely different path, it abandons the very thing that made it interesting in the first place.
On top of that, the scares in this part of the film also become much more in your face, A few of them are creepy, but on the whole, they just come across as a bit corny. It’s a jarring change from the masterfully subtle, more atmospheric horror of the first half, and for a big fan of subtle horror like me, it’s also a huge bummer.
To be fair, there are still some good ideas in the second half of Lovely, Dark, and Deep. In particular, I like the general concept of the evil presence in this park, and if the movie had used it better, this could’ve been a truly great experience.
But it doesn’t. Unfortunately, I’m sad to say that I wouldn’t recommend this film. I wanted to love it, and the first half made me think I would, but the deeper I got into the second half, the more I soured on it. By the time the credits began to roll, my opinion had done a complete 180. If you’re looking for some good new horror to watch, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is set to hit VOD on February 22.
