Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

whineycracker2000 Right off the bat, Mickey Keating's latest film Darling shows real promise. For starters, it is visually stunning: the lighting, set design and black and white cinematography (while imitative) are truly impressive. His shot compositions of New York City even rival Woody Allen's famous, yet overrated opening of "Manhattan. It's undeniable that Keating and company know their craft pretty well, and that has to be applauded. However, the overall end product is lacking in many crucial areas for me, particularly its narrative trajectory and plot, which borrow heavily (I use that word kindly) from early Polanski's "Apartment Trilogy",among other films in the "female losing grip on reality" (i.e. Carnival of Souls) subgenre. Obviously, anybody who has been schooled in these films can clearly see that Keating's effort is really just a modern, pimped-out mashup, but with a pretentious, student film-like execution that lacks a unique vision or a genuine exploration into the pathology of it's lead character. In other words, Darling looks great, but gives audiences very little to process.I could have forgiven the film's plagiaristic nature if it had something authentic, unique, or timely to say about its hinted-at themes of isolation, female sexual repression, mental illness, urban alienation, or anything for that matter -but it doesn't. The film is an exercise in style and, well, literally nothing else. I am not convinced Keating has any idea who his main character is, or truly even cares; she is merely a prop (admittedly a very lovely one). Instead of giving audiences any type of backstory, Keating relies on the now-exhausted "descent into madness" theme; borrowing heavily from films such as 1980's The Shining's exploration of the murky area between mental and metaphysical chaos. However, here this approach is really just used as a lazy device to demonstrate Keating's technical virtuosity, while allowing him to exercise his giddiness over the entire filmmaking process. However, the filmmaker's ego ultimately compromises the integrity of the film, rendering it a hollow shell devoid of meaningful content.In addition to its shallow and derivative vibe, Keating's film is hampered by a seriously flawed and unconvincing portrayal of Darling herself, played by the purportedly budding indie "star" Lauren Ashley Carter. Without beating around the bush, I can only say that Carter's performance simply belies any credibility and comes across as wooden, self-aware, and curiously arrogant. I couldn't help but imagine her trying to stay in character, while making a valiant attempt to adhere to Keating's rigid physical instructions, with a "step-by-step" dutifulness (literally, it seemed like she was walking an invisible tightrope the whole time). Watching her, I got the sense that Keating was directing her based on shot construction and lighting schemes rather than character development/arc or story advancement. After watching Keating's film I was compelled to go back and reflect on specific scenes from the films that clearly inspired it. Remembering Catherine Deneuve in "Repulsion", Candace Hilligoss in "Carnival of Souls", or more recently, Angela Betis in 2002's underrated "May"- I couldn't deny the undeniably stark contrast between the craft and depth of those memorable performances and Carter's here. It became clearer to me that there simply is no subtlety, nuance, or honesty in Carter's performance or Keating's film as a whole. Alas, Darling completely lacks the particular combination of originality and vision that made its progenitors so enduringly effective. Instead, what we are left with is a series of random shots and jarring noise that are devoid of context or purpose. It's really too bad, because as mentioned earlier, Darling is a visual feast; and given a more original script, clarity of purpose, and effective lead, it might have been something truly inspired and influential in its own right.

octopusquid This movie sucks. Flat out. It's a shame to think about how much time and effort was put into this complete miscalculation of a movie. I understand it's a low budget film, but if you're trying to make a movie that catches peoples' attention and gets them wanting more, you have to realize that a movie like this is not the way to do it.Borrowing heavily from Roman Polanski's "Repulsion," this "film" focuses on Darling, a girl with no name that's hired to watch over a giant, mysterious apartment while the owners leave town. Apparently some supernatural stuff happened in the apartment and it's caused multiple other apartment-watching girls from the past to commit suicide. So yeah, of course she takes that job, it seems like it has a good reputation.I swear, I watched this movie with subtitles on (as I do with all movies) and the caption "Eerie music playing" showed up like ten times. This movie was hilarious in its attempt to be tense and scary, when in reality it is an extremely mundane and unbelievably boring film. The main actress (a beautiful woman, I'll give her that) blankly stares her way through what feels like six hours, and this is a 78 minute film. The director clearly intended her to be a character that's as mysterious as the setting, but when she is given no character, barely speaks a word and stares into the camera for a grand total of fifty-five minutes, there is no takeaway there. The movie hopes that the musical score will make you feel scared and uneasy, but nothing happens in the apartment that would warrant an uneasy feeling. Through static, uninspired camera compositions, you don't feel like something scary is about to happen; you actually feel like this is the worst student film that ever won Best Prize at the high school film festival. I was in utter awe at how far they dropped the ball on this one. There's even a completely pointless subplot where the main girl stalks a man and goes on a date with him only for it to end horribly wrong but at that point during the movie, I was already clocked out and asking for my money back, even though I rented this from a library. When the "twist" is revealed that she's actually just an insane girl, it's not a surprise because you already knew that from her staring at everything for minutes at a time!Please, stay away from this movie. It's a practice in endurance, and it is not an easy one. If you watch it just for the cute actress, fine, do that. She's cute. But if you're expecting a well-made thrill-ride with genuine horror and tension, you're better off watching "Halloweentown" for that. P.S- there's an inkling of a great idea near the end where Darling opens "the room," which is the room that the homeowner told her to stay away from at all costs at the beginning of the film, but that, of course, goes absolutely nowhere and I hate this movie so much.

susannaepatterson This movie is a psychological thriller and a great one. The story and setting are simple which makes it even more interesting as well as the black and white film. The trouble with 'Darling' becomes apparent later in the movie. The acting is fantastic! Darlings descent into madness is beautifully drawn out through her isolation and only periodic phone calls from her employer. Whether her madness was brought on by the possible demonic activity in the house or her own past mental inability is unclear but it only adds to the mystery. There is also the possibility that the man she encounters meerly resembles that of a man from her past that she feels necessary to take out revenge on for what he did to her in the past.

kittingrrl oh I was so disappointed in this. it was laughably predictable. the acting was overwrought and amateurish. how can washing your hands look so overtly dramatic? I'm quite prepared to deal with style over substance, but it sucks when there is neither going on. looked like someone watched some old French flicks and I thought "I can do that!" no sir, no you can't. I'd rather watch some old white zombie videos. I thought by having Larry Fessenden in it, it wouldn't be all bad. I was so wrong. oh Larry, what the hell? I guess the 60 seconds he was in it was probably the best part so there's that. avoid at all costs.