Alicia
I love this movie so much
Lumsdal
Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Tss5078
The best actors in Hollywood need to get that big role before their career can take off. No matter how good they are, until they find that role, they won't be a household name and are forced to take whatever roles they can get. Even megastars, like Chris Pratt got his start on a low rated CW drama, and did B-movies for a decade before he was cast as Star Lord, this is the position Keir Gilchrist finds himself in now. Gilchrist is an exceptional young actor, who always gives his best, but without that big role on his resume, he's forced to take jobs like this one. Dark Summer follows Daniel, (Gilchrist) a 17 year old who has recently been sentenced to house arrest for stalking a girl from his school. To make matters worse, his parents are away for the summer and Daniel is all alone. As boredom ware away at him mind, Daniel starts to see things and wonders if he's being punished for his crimes by some supernatural entity, or if he's just going insane from boredom. For much of this movie, the actor is bored, and if the actor is bored, what do you think the audience is feeling? Daniel's days are filled with monotonous discussions with friends, who sneak over, and of course investigations that turn up nothing. As for his nights, they are filled with a lot of jump scares and loud noises that again ultimately turn up nothing, as Dark Summer is just one of those films where nothing happens until the last twenty minutes, and by then, who really cares anymore? The bottom line, even a great actor couldn't save this film, it's your typical supernatural horror film, filled with a lot of jump scares, good looking people, and a whole lot of nothing else until the very end.
view_and_review
A young hacker, Daniel (Keir Gilchrist), gets put on house arrest for cyber stalking. The girl he stalked, Mona Wislon (Grace Phipps), takes her own life right before his eyes then the stalker becomes the stalked.Initially I thought the movie was an incredibly lame idea. A girl takes her own life just because some twitterpated teen was stalking her. Was he that malicious in his stalking? As the movie unfolded we got to know a little more about the suicide girl and the reason for her last hurrah.Although it got better the movie was still flawed. Some scenes dragged on too long without adding any benefit and there was too much music with lack of dialog. It was very Ang Lee--almost as if we were supposed to understand the mood through the musical score and facial expressions. It got to the point where I wondered if the film was on a word budget. There were far too many scenes of the scrawny, bare-chested hacker, with no action and no speaking. I completely understand that mood can be set with music alone but there is a way to do it.There were some jump scares and crazy poltergeist stuff. I actually had no problems with that as it fell in line with the flow of the movie and they were done well enough. As I mentioned, the movie does get better. In fact, things begin to make sense until they throw in a loop which actually just creates a plot hole. Don't you hate that? The movie could've wrapped up just fine, made sense, and be a decent movie but the writers outsmarted themselves and left a gaping hole in the plot. What a bummer.
Leofwine_draca
DARK SUMMER is the newest addition to a never-ending wave of dark and dreary teen horror films which go for a dour, downbeat look throughout. This is a particularly bizarre entry in the genre, an odd mix of stalker thriller with ghost story, and none of it is particularly engaging. One of the main problems with the thing is the obtuse nature of the direction, which doesn't exactly make it clear just what's going on.The main character, Daniel, is a creepy stalker currently under house arrest for stalking a pretty young girl. The plot thickens when it transpires that she actively encouraged his attentions, and resorted to magic spells to get him to love her. It gets even muddier from there, with some brief snippets of gore (including a bit inspired by SAW), some CGI ghost stuff, and lots of mumbled dialogue and characters wandering around and acting generally insipid. A tired-looking Peter Stormare (FARGO) is the only recognisable cast member.
areadingwoman
So let me start off by saying that this was a decent film in the end. But it DOES take until the end to vindicate the dull hour that precedes it. Fortunately, I don't feel the need to watch what I consider dull or predictable parts of films. I figure that's the joy of watching at home instead of the theater. So you have to know that this is a predictable movie in terms of relationships. It's evident early on that there's unrequited love going on and that is a big part of the film. Since this is the single most obvious part of the plot and for some reason takes up almost half the film, feel free to skip it all once you recognize the relationship. You'll see it within the first 5 minutes. After that is a lot of nothing mixed in with scares intermittently as is expected in a horror film. It's not too gory and there are some decent creepy moments throughout. Why the high rating, you may ask. It's all in the ending! This is one of those rare movies where I didn't see the end coming and that made all the fast forwarding worth it. Also, other reviewers said the movie was dark. I will say that I did not have that trouble with watching it on Netflix. Platform differences maybe?
