Review: Hold The Dark

After bringing tension and graphic violence to Blue Ruin and Green Room I was highly anticipating Jeremy Saulnier’s new Netflix release Hold The Dark, some meddling reviews about a lack of story did worry me slightly but I still decided to take a shot based on my enjoyment of Saulnier’s other works. Sadly after checking the film out myself I believe the reviews have a point, there is a subtext that might work the film out for some people but for me I found the film to lack answers to too many questions.

Set in the Alaskan Wilderness of 2004, the film follows hunter and novelist Russell Core as he’s tasked by grieving mother Medora Sloan to find and kill the wolf that took her 6 year old son Bailey before her husband Vernon returns from Iraq. Russell tracks down the wolf pack only to discover that something far more sinister is going on.

Medora goes missing just as Vernon returns home looking for revenge and leaving a trial of bodies in his wake. Teaming up with police chief Donald Marium, Russell tries to find Medora before Vernon does and get some answers as to what the hell is going on.

While this might seem like a murder mystery it’s not really, Bailey’s death is not the mystery at play here, rather it’s the aftermath and asking why Vernon is going to such violent lengths for revenge. It’s a good question to start the main plot of the film but the film gives very little as it goes on, only more violence and questions that start to grate on you the less it makes sense, even by the end there’s no real answer as to what the point of any of it. There did seem to be an underling thematic connection between Vernon and the wolves which may have provided some context but it still didn’t make up for the film just saying fuck you to anyone wanting to film to make sense.

The character work was decent for the most part but like with the story it was missing certain key components to push it from good to great. Riley Keough as Medora Sloan started the film off with its dark themes playing a grieving mother with more than a few secrets, there seemed to be a feeling of regret in her actions before she disappeared, it’s a confusing but good performance that’s almost missing had Medora felt necessary to the story.

Alexander Skarsgard as Vernon gave the film it’s central villain, I’m not 100% on where I stand on Vernon , on one hand Skarsgard plays the cold-hearted killer with ease, Vernon is a man of few words, preferring to use actions and often violent ones and Skarsgard is great as that character but because we don’t get any context to Vernon’s actions he becomes this force of nature but in the sense of being random and chaotic to the point of confusion. Like Medora it’s a confusing but good performance that lacks any rhyme or reason. Apparently the original book had a concrete reveal about Vernon and Medora, it’s still hinted at here and ties into the theme of Vernon and the wolves but it’s too ambiguous for its own good.

Jeffrey Wright plays the main character of Russell Core and like Skarsgard, Wright gives a good performance that’s lacking in the general scope of the film. When Russell enters the film he’s already in a difficult place having become estranged from his daughter and coming to realise he’s not as young as he use to be. His history with wolves is semi-famous having written a book after spending a year watching a pack so it’s understandable why Medora calls him to begin with but once certain reveals are made it becomes increasingly confusing what Russell’s point in the story is, there is somewhat of a theory later on but that feels like an afterthought answer to a question they were forced to answer. To Wright’s credit he does well in the role, he plays Russell with a quietness to him which is both his greatest strength and his biggest weakness, because Russell is an older, quieter character he’s given a more subdued nature which translate to a character more use to thinking things through rather than acting, juxtaposing nicely against Vernon. The problem is that because Russell is so passive and because the story is so weak there gets to a point where it becomes evident the film can’t find a reason to keep Russell in the story, for a good chunk of the second act Russell is just a bystander, not really contributing until he’s brought back for the final 20 minutes. It’s a shame because I liked Wright and I liked Russell but there often wasn’t a place for him.

While Russell struggles to find a place for the second act he does share screen presence with Donald Marium, played by James Badge Dale, the chief of police who joins Russell on his search for Medora. Bale plays the role well enough, giving Donald a rare kindness in a cold, unforgiving world but matched with his cop intuition that keeps him alive, but sadly he’s definitely a supporting character who’s only a part of Russell’s story rather than his own character and since Russell’s story has its own issues it stretches to Donald as well lessening his impact on the film. He gets his chance to shine of course, particularly during a shootout at the half-way point, but afterwards there’s not a lot for him.

Thankfully Jeremy Saulnier’s direction holds strong, he showcases this world to be dark, cruel, violent and superstitious, the cold translated across the screen well and you often felt a chill pulsing through the film. Much like the similarly cold-themed Wind River, Saulnier built a cold, unforgiving world filled with racial tensions and Indian curses, it’s not as pronounced as it could’ve been with both often being more subtext that anything else but it helps with the world building.

Where Saulnier shone was in the tension, while not as constant as Green Room it did ebb and flow throughout, often building slowly whenever Vernon was on screen and wondering just how far he was going to go, the aforementioned shootout delivered the trademark Saulnier graphic violence and high-tension although it did stray a little into unbelievable territory. Since the film was mostly a slow-burn it wasn’t a rolling tension which did make some moments drag out but Saulnier did enough to balance that out and never made the film feel like it was unnecessarily slow.

Considering the talent behind it, Hold The Dark being a disappointment is hard to accept, I’m a big fan of Saulnier’s previous works and I had huge hopes for this and while there are great things about it with Saulnier’s tension-filled direction and the acting with Wright and Skarsgard being the standouts. But it’s all let down by a confusing storyline that never tried to answer its own mystery, maybe some context was lost on me with some underlying themes but that doesn’t make the film any more engaging.

6/10