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Dark Forces
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Violence, sex scenes in pretentious, surreal horror movie.
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Dark Forces
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What's the Story?
In DARK FORCES, Franco (Tenoch Huerta) has just rolled into town on his motorcycle in search of his missing sister Sonia. He checks into an eerie and nightmarish hotel, where one of the guests is a strange-looking man named Jack, who wrote a book called Dark Forces. In this hotel, there's also a psychic person with albinism named Julia who lives with her mother. The mother tells him Franco that he'll need to pay them $2000 in order for Julia to tell him where he can find Sonia, and not until the next full moon. He meets a waitress named Rubi (Erendira Ibarra), who he rescues from a physically abusive man. Rubi becomes immediately smitten with Franco, and she agrees to help rob a restaurant in order to procure the $2000, per Jack's instructions. As they wait for the full moon, Franco and Rubi sleep together, and Franco has nightmarish visions involving a phallic-looking worm that leaves mouths to enter other mouths. Can Franco escape this nightmare and save his sister?
Is It Any Good?
Dark Forces is a Mexican horror film that ultimately comes across as a pretentious attempt at occupying the same space as the movies of David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Surreal, nightmarish, strange-looking people under artsy lighting and a hideous, phallic-like worm creature are the hallmarks of this effort. Like a juggling unicyclist taking up the sidewalk in some "hipster" neighborhood of a big city, it doesn't take long for the movie to feel like it's trying a little too hard to be "different." The style and the "weirdness" grow tiresome, especially when the style begins to serve as a cover for what's otherwise a flimsy story.
The "bad boy on a motorcycle," the equating of a person with albinism with mystical powers, the talk of a "full moon," etc. all prove that the surreal can have just as many (if not more) cliches as any movie taken from "real life." Obviously, there's nothing wrong with trying to make a movie with a unique style and sensibility, but when the style overwhelms the substance, and the very style draws a little too heavily on the styles of other films, it loses anything that might make it actually unique. What you get is pretentiousness, and that's what mars Dark Forces from beginning to end.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies. How does this compare to other horror movies in terms of violence, suspense, gore?
What are some other examples of movies that try to create a nightmarish and surreal world?
Why do you think horror movies have such an appeal for many? Why do some people like to be scared out of their seats when watching movies?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: August 21, 2020
- Cast: Tenoch Huerta , Erendira Ibarra , Dale Carley
- Director: Bernardo Arellano
- Inclusion Information: Bisexual actors, Latino actors
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Horror
- Run time: 81 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 18, 2023
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