The Dark (2005)
Based on the Novel “Sheep” by Simon Maginn and set in Wales, though shot on the Isle of Man, The Dark (2005) tackles Welsh folklore and the theme of second chances.
Plot Synopsis
An American woman, Adèlle, visits her husband James in Wales with their daughter Sarah. They get lost on the way and come across a nearby monument memorial with the text “Annwyn” etched into the stone beneath a missing plate. Daffyd, a local who works with James, explains that in Welsh mythology, Annwyn is a form of afterlife (lit: otherworld, or very deep).
Sarah later vanishes on a beach, presumably into the water, where another girl, Ebrill, appears in her place. She is revealed to be the dead daughter of a shepherd cum pastor fifty years prior. When Ebrill died, her father gave her to the ocean, sending her to Annwyn. He then created a modern religion where he purposefully lied to convince his followers to sacrifice themselves into the ocean, hoping their deaths would bring back his daughter.
Ebrill was returned from Annwyn with their sacrifices, however she apparently came back wrong. Her father tried various forms of drawing out the evil from her – mostly physical violence and deprivation such as trepanning. A young Dafydd was amongst the followers, but could not bring himself to sacrifice himself like his parents did, and was taken in by the shepherd. When Dafydd could no longer bear to see Ebrill be tortured, he set her free where she killed her father by pushing him off the cliff.
Adèlle realises that Ebrill is back via Sarah’s death, and in an attempt to bring her daughter back, picks up Ebrill and jumps off the cliff with her. This sends them both to Annwyn, depicted as a sepia-toned blurry mirror of the real world, where it is revealed that prior to coming to Wales Sarah attempted suicide by overdose following an Argument with her mother. Adèlle begs Ebrill for a second chance, where she is informed that the dead don’t get second chances. Ebrill and her father then perform the same tortures forced upon Ebrill on Adèlle, who eventually escapes. She finds Sarah locked behind a door, and tearfully apologises, when she then finds a key. Upon unlocking the door, Sarah is rescued from Annwyn, and they both return to the real world. Sarah reunites with her father, while Adèlle attempts to as well, slowly realising that they cannot see her and she cannot interact with the world. She works out that she is dead, and infected with whatever evil supposedly infected Ebrill.
Analysis
“He has her. One of the living, for one of the dead.” – Ebrill, The Dark (2005)
The Dark (2005) tackles many of the same themes and motifs as The Ring (2002), from the frequent flashbacks and animal suicide, to the more substantial messaging of trauma and innate ability to change – or not. The mass death of the sheep is akin to the idea of “followers” as sheep, something reinforced by the choice to have the father be a shepherd, which is also used as a biblical term for those who bring about the next stage of existence – whether that’s a shepherd of the apocalypse or heaven. In this regard, the sheeps’ suicides invoke and image of the Jonestown Massacre and portray this unending belief in the evil inside a child as a form of modern religion or cult. The biblical references go further through the appearance of stigmata, and that the father himself is a pastor.
A common aspect of the film is to use the literal environment to highlight the characters’ emotions, frequently using still water to indicate peace versus crashing waves for turmoil. It often uses a dichotomy of blue-green muted colours for calmer situations against bright red colours for the scenarios and people with more ferocity in their actions. In addition to this, it also uses fast cuts in more graphic scenes to indicate a lack of addressing trauma, and an inability to face the reality of what has happened, and what may be continuing to happen. Without this addressing, the poor relationships fostered through neglect and violence are unable to be repaired.
The theme of lost innocence due to trauma is heavily explored, with the commonality of it all being that having trauma – and trauma responses – may make you be treated worse by others who do not or choose not to understand. The trauma is a secretive thing, one which feels as though it must be hidden away, and only by finding it and exploring it as safely as possible can good outcomes be found. Without unlocking, in the film literally, the traumatic events hidden in your past, you cannot move forward and heal.
Additionally, it explores the idea of a body versus a soul. At the end, the child is implied to be Ebrill’s soul in Sarah’s body. This torments Adèlle, but James is content with simply having his daughter back, not knowing any better. Tying back to a previous paragraph, this again is about sheep – in the metaphorical sense this time. By simply following along and not questioning or delving deeper, James is content and happy. By attempting to make a better life for a child who has died (albeit through nefarious means) via messing with Annwyn, Adèlle has caused her own suffering and furthered that of her daughter. It poses the question of risk versus reward, in addition to its many other dichotomies. It consistently asks the viewer to consider both sides of a difficult situation, both inside and outside of genre savviness.
Although it is not explored explicitly in the film, and many aspects of Annwyn’s actual folklore are omitted or changed, it is also worth mentioning that in the mythos Annwyn is explicitly a both dangerous and opulent place. It exists in a space of eternal youth and delight, but those who rule it do so with great power, and crossing them is a sure way to reach an awful demise. There is the potential that the ending of the film is simply a punishment on Adèlle, and not literal. She is being tormented as recompense for trifling in matters she should not have.
In all, it is a film with many questions posed, skipped, and attempted to be answered. The takeaway is not necessarily literal in what happened, but rather in how the viewer answers or responds to those questions introspectively and carries on with their life with that in mind.
