Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Extremely violent and graphic horror movie is hard to watch.
Parents Need to Know
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A Dark Foe
What's the Story?
In A DARK FOE, Tony Cruz is an FBI agent on the hunt for the serial killer who brutally murdered his mother and kidnapped his sister. But when an attempted arrest inside of a strip club goes horribly wrong due to Cruz's fear of the dark, he finds himself no longer employed by the FBI, and eventually seeks therapy to work through the traumatic events of his childhood that led him to this fear of the dark. Cruz's former partner (Bill Bellamy) tells Cruz that he can find work as a bodyguard for a mysterious billionaire who may have some connection to the serial killer. He takes the job and finds himself in charge of keeping a watchful eye on the billionaire's seductive wife, who reveals to Cruz her own tragic past, a past that sets Cruz back on the path of the serial killer. Cruz's tenacious hunt for this brutal murderer and sex trafficker leads into a nightmarish world of scalped and skinned victims, women kidnapped by sex traffickers in order to make money servicing the depraved lusts of their clients, and excruciating torture. Undaunted, Cruz must navigate through this world and stop this killer and sex trafficker once and for all, no matter what.
Is It Any Good?
A Dark Foe is an extremely graphic tale with a nonsensical and incoherent storyline. It's full of excruciating scenes of melodrama delivered by incompetent actors. There's gratuitous violence and gore. Messages about having a fear of the dark and society's unjust treatment of women who turn to sex work in order to survive are buried. Any messages are soon forgotten when faced with the lead character trapped inside of an outhouse toilet covered in fecal matter.
If there's a future for this movie, it's on the Satellite of Love with the MST3K crew, or else with the comedians on the How Did This Get Made? podcast, but it might not even be good enough for that. It's also nearly two hours long. Even the so-awful-it's-good entertainment value soon wears thin. It seems like the filmmakers were going for something bizarre along the lines of David Lynch's filmography, but in this case, it's just an indulgent mess.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies. Why are they popular? What's the appeal?
What did you think of the level of violence? How much is too much?
Was there a deeper message that the movie was trying to communicate, and if so, what was it?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : July 30, 2021
- Cast : Kenzie Dalton , Oscar Cardenas , Selma Blair
- Director : Maria Gabriela Cardenas
- Studio : Vertical Entertainment
- Genre : Horror
- Run time : 114 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : Disturbing violent content, gruesome images, a rape, sexual content, nudity, language, and drug material.
- Last updated : July 2, 2022
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