Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
A town's legacy of sexual child abuse is exposed; violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Colors of Evil: Black
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In COLORS OF EVIL: BLACK, young prosecutor Leopold Bilski (Jakub Gierszal, also the film's writer) finds himself exiled from his big-city Warsaw job and posted to a small Polish town. He immediately starts digging into the disappearance of a boy, a crime supposedly solved when the boy allegedly turned up 200 miles away. Eventually his body is found, exposing the cover-up by local law enforcement beholden to the town's wealthiest family. Despite orders to drop the case, Bilski discovers patterns of widespread sexual child abuse and murder. A vampire legend and other superstitions are also thrown in the mix. The decapitated body of a missing boy is dug up. When another young boy goes missing, Bilski bets that getting to the bottom of the earlier crimes will help him find the child before it's too late.
Is It Any Good?
When Colors of Evil: Black is acting like a detective story, it moves from one plot point to the next with a certain solid rhythm. But the more convoluted the plot becomes, the more that rhythm is disrupted. This requires characters to take a moment to explain, at length, what's going on and what happened 20 years ago.
At other times, the filmmakers pretend this is a horror movie, emphasizing the possibility of supernatural forces at work. The lighting, music, and camera work try to support the murky suggestion that abused and kidnapped children are somehow connected to a legend about blood-sucking creatures. But, nope, the evil is completely human-based. To add to the grim but misleading aura, we get occasional glimpses of truly disturbed people doing truly disturbing things. It's part of a dim view of humanity, but one that allows for the existence of good people to overcome in the quest for justice.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the power a wealthy person can have in a small town and how power and money can be used to bribe, blackmail, and pressure people into hiding bad deeds.
Many people in this town looked the other way in the face of rampant child abuse. What do you think can be done to keep children safe from abusers in positions of power?
Talk about the film's violence. Was it shocking? Does exposure to violent media desensitize kids to violence?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : June 10, 2026
- Cast : Jakub Gierszal , Marianna Zydek , Robert Gonera
- Director : Adrian Panek
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Run time : 110 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : June 14, 2026
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