Lovely, Dark, and Deep, 2023.
Written and directed by Teresa Sutherland.
Starring Georgina Campbell, Nick Blood, and Wai Ching Ho.
SYNOPSIS:
Lennon, a new back-country ranger, travels alone through the dangerous wilderness, hoping to uncover the origins of a tragedy that has haunted her since she was a child.
Set in wild mountain valleys and backwoods hiking trails, Teresa Sutherland’s elegantly made directorial debut puts the location right in the frame. Sutherland had a writing credit on 2018’s The Wind, a film that showcased the potentially harsh conditions of the North American landscape, and in Lovely, Dark, and Deep this fascination with the great outdoors is continued.
The titular lines come from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, a Robert Frost poem focusing on balancing an appreciation of nature with the obligations of duty. This offers some insight into the character of the protagonist, Lennon (Georgina Campbell, star of 2022’s Barbarian). Having recently started a new job as a ranger in a remote outpost plagued by reports of missing persons, she loves the lonely idyll of the countryside but also recognises the isolated dramatic personality of the place.
Seeking to uncover answers to a mystery that has been a central part of her life since childhood, Lennon becomes fully immersed in the loneliness of the country. Disturbed and confused by a haunting presence in the woods, she gets lost in the wildlife when trying to track a trail. Offered some assistance by fellow rangers Jackson (Nick Blood) and Zhang (Wai Ching Ho), it soon becomes evident that her anxiety goes much further than the borders of the woods or the power outage on her two-way radio.
Core to this film’s success is the gorgeous cinematography that takes in the glorious expanse of the woods in all their colours. Darkly imbued shadows give way to fantastic overheads showing off an endless richness of greenery. In this setting the stories of people could become too distant, too insignificant. But Sutherland’s hallucinatory tale puts the missing people front and centre; it is one of them that motivates Lennon to keep on searching.
There is also a terrific auditory weirdness on the soundtrack that helps to promote the idea of being trapped in a nightmare. The rustling of leaves in the woodland breeze shares space with cracked radio signals and distorted emergency call-outs. Voices meld into one another and ghostly constructs bark out of receivers without warning. The overall effect is one of dread and slow-burning discomfort.
The pacing of the film is deliberately slow, and when the panic does hit, it does so in a measured way that only helps to reinforce the intensity of Lennon’s torment. In essence, this is a beautifully composed nightmare, that will make you wonder at the dark corners of our landscapes, both geographical and mental.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk
