This book includes 200 dark movies you’ll want to revisit time and again. These are the most rewatchable dark films reviewed by film critic Steve Hutchison.
Sorted in order of preference and reviewed, each film description contains a synopsis, a list of genres it belongs to, a list of ambiances involved, seven ratings and a three-paragraph review.
These films are not for the squeamish. You have been warned!
Mercy
A family takes care of their grandmother who has mystical powers.
United States2014
Feature Film
Realism:
Supernatural
Character Focus:
Wizard Film
Animals:
Snake
Relative:
Mother
Related
Dimensional:
Spirit
Object:
Book
Psychics:
Telekinetic
Wizards:
Evoker
Conjurer
This film has no mercy on your soul...
Performances
Plot
Ambiance
In Mercy, Stephen king exploits the theme of eldercare, and, you guessed it, twists it around to create a sick horror story. He makes this one about witchcraft. Subplots aside, this film is about a teenager forced to take care of his demented grand-mother. The short story this is based one is simply titled “Gramma”. Sounds simple enough? Stephen King’s adaptations are never simple these days…
Sometimes, less is more. In the case of Mercy, everything is more complicated than it should be. If you expect a quintessential supernatural thriller, you’ll be rolling your eyes more than once. For every good Stephen King film, there is a bad one. This falls in the bottom half. The things that cannot be revealed about the film are what ruins it. Sadly, the gimmick is stronger than the end result.
There are many “what the hell” moments in this; things that probably made sense on paper but not on screen. The mythos, however complex it was in the original book, appears convoluted, here. Fans of voodoo magic in horror cinema will find this interesting, but, regardless of your tastes, your experience will feel incomplete. Mercy is painfully consumed and easily forgotten.
