VOD Review: Dark Summer (2015)

(aka Dark Bummer.)
Release Date: January 9th.
Country: USA.
Rating: NR.
Written by: Mike Le.
Directed by: Paul Solet.
Starring: Peter Stormare, Kier Gilchrist, Stella Maeve, Maestro Harrell, and Grace Phipps.

Back in 2009, director Paul Solet gave us a disturbing little movie that we loved called Grace (our review HERE), and then he didn't make another movie for six years. Why did he wait so long in-between projects? We have no idea, but as much as we liked his first directorial effort, we were definitely excited to see what he'd do for a follow-up.

All these years later, that follow-up is here in the form of Dark Summer; the story of a kid on house arrest who is being terrorized by a vengeful spirit. As poorly as this movie turned out, we think that maybe he waited a bit too long to get back on the directing horse.

Daniel is a 17-year-old creeper on house arrest for cyber-stalking a weird chick from school. With his Mom away, his parole officer advises him not to drink, do drugs, have any underage friends over, or go online and use any sort of social media whatsoever, or he'll be in big trouble. Of course he immediately has his friends come over so that they can all get high, drink, and help him get back online. Kids.

BEST PROBATION OFFICER EVER.

Once he does get back online, Daniel finds that Mona (the girl that he creeped on), has sent him a video of her blowing her head off. Being a tender lad, Daniel cries, and blames himself for the suicide. Apparently, Mona blames him too, as evidenced by her ghost haunting him; eerie songs play in the middle of the night, mirrors crack, flies buzz hypnotically around lights, jars break... and it all happens in extremely slow-motion.

MAN UP, YOU LITTLE BITCH.

Daniel and his friends race against time (?!?) to discover the mystery behind Mona's supernatural aggression, and what they find out is that it was probably her who should have been on house arrest. A ghostly love triangle ensues.

AWW, SAD GHOST.

As much as we didn't enjoy this movie, we do have to say that it looks great. Paul Solet has a good eye for visuals, and he definitely knows how to make a pretty movie on a lower budget. We like the guy, we just didn't like this movie anywhere near as much as we did his first one.

The real problem with Dark Summer is that it's just too slow and dull. There were far too many lingering shots of people looking frightened, and even more scenes of a character turning their head slowly, walking down a hallway slowly, walking towards a fence slowly... and these scenes sometimes dragged on for minutes. I suppose it was all meant to create some sort of effective, creepy mood or something, but it really only served as an annoyance. It was distracting, and worst of all, it wasn't very effective. 

And when the endless amount of slow-motion scenes actually lead to something happening, it was never anything remotely scary; in one scene, after what seemed like a 12-minute walk down a hallway, we were treated to a glowing iPod playing some creepy, hypnotic song, and then another 2 minutes of the character staring at it in disbelief. Maybe it's us, but we just weren't feeling it.

DO NOT GIVE RANDY FROM THE WIRE THE EVIL EYE, DANIEL!

A lot of the plot doesn't make much sense either. How is a 17-year-old on house arrest allowed to stay at home alone, with no adult supervision whatsoever? I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that in most states, minors aren't allowed to be home alone with no adult supervision, especially when they're felons on house arrest. And even if he was able to be alone, how is he not supervised better? The kid drinks, gets high, has friends over, uses the computer... and he's never taken to task for any of it. Why is there not a Social Worker assigned to him? UGH.

YES WE KNOW, SOMETHING REALLY SLOW AND TERRIFYING IS HAPPENING.

The cast is solid in this one, even if the story that their characters inhabit didn't give them very much to do. It's always great to see Peter Stormare and his unique brand of intensity at work, because he usually tends to make whatever he's in better. the "Kids" were all solid in this one too. It was great to see Maestro Harrell in a Genre project, as we've been fans of his since his days on The Wire. The kid is a good, natural actor. Also, Stella Maeve is really hot.

STELLA MAEVE WASN'T TOO BAD IN THIS ONE EITHER.

You can party all you want when you're on house arrest. No one will care. Also, it's always the quiet ones who come back to haunt you from beyond the grave.

TALK ABOUT GIVING SOMEONE YOUR HEART...

Well-made and nice to look at, Dark Summer was unfortunately far too slow and uneventful to make us give any sort of shit about it. There's definitely an audience out there for this movie, as it looks to be geared toward a bit of a younger crowd, we're just not a part of it.

C-

Dark Summer is available now on VOD.

Stella Maeve and Grace Phipps are in this.