{Movie Review} The Darker The Lake

The Darker The Lake is a sneaky, scary, Scandinavian secret.

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Nordic horror is rapidly becoming a genre all of us should be looking out for. Bright lights, winter jackets, and plenty of snow have come to define the elements of this type of folk horror that somehow feel even creepier elucidated by the light and reflected by the snow. The Darker the Lake is a another solid entry in Scandinavian horror that embraces the folklore of the region while providing more than a few scares.

The Darker the Lake Plays a Different Kind of Game

1987, St. Michael, a group of high school friends discover an ancient board game and start to play. That is the first line of the description of the film and while the new board game they find does look a whole lot like a chess board, and the game does include chess pieces it is distinctly NOT chess. The game gives us the first real chance to show off the special effects which are way better than one might expect a film that feels like its budget is relatively small. From the shadow figure that seems to be playing the game with the students, to the letters that seem to inscribe themselves in the air, the FX in The Darker the Lake deserve all the accolades they will receive.

As the film progresses the students become consumed by their addictive new pastime. But things turn deadly. The first scene of this film establishes that Nordic Noir is perhaps the perfect description of the film. Lea (Gina Stiebitz) explains to the detectives and the camera all of my friends are dead…and I might have killed them. And the culprit might just be a weird mashup of chess, a drinking game, and a séance. Yep, I would say this is for me. Both Stiebitz and Veronica Ferres play Lea with a vulnerability that feels authentic and deeply sad.

Fast forward to 2021 and a spate of strange deaths – in the very same small town – have shaken locals to their core… bearing striking similarities to the events of more than 30 years ago, the movie is more interested in exploring the game and the fear it causes than the unfinished business of a small town in Austria which is actually a breath of fresh air from other movies that seem obsessed with exploring generational trauma via small town politics.

Enter our Two detectives – with their own personal links to the area –  are brought together to work on the case. When they track down those involved in the original mystery, all those years ago, things start to get complicated. As much as I enjoyed the FX and the spooky qualities of the game I enjoyed watching the procedural elements of the investigation even more. Each piece of the puzzle felt important and the peripheral characters provide just enough information to keep the plot flowing forward.

A Confusing End to the Game

The final act of the film is a bit of mess. The ending attempts to tie all of the loose ends together but in the end I am left mostly confused. I think we are meant to believe that the game lingers on through a series of watches that some of the game players receive in the mail. The Darker the Lake would have done better to trust the audience and the first ninety minutes of the film and reveal less to us at the end. The final scenes that attempt to clean up elements of the narrative feel unnecessary and instead of simplifying some of the issues these scenes only complicated some of the questions I had already answered in my head. All of that being said The Frequency of Terror sounds like a podcast I would download and try out. It also happens to be a pretty fun Spanish horror film from the 90’s.

The final ten minutes of the film aside The Darker the Lake is surprisingly full of both pathos and fear. Writer/Director Lok Kwan Woo has a clear vision and style of storytelling that should make all of us horror fans excited for what comes next from her. Check out The Darker the Lake out now on VOD wherever you stream your movies.