31 Days of Halloween October Horror Movie Challenge - Day 7: From the Dark (2015)

 

Day 7 - From the Dark (2015)

Platform: Borrowed Hoopla. 

Quote:

“It’s afraid of the light!”

Synopsis:

In the remote countryside of Ireland, a farmer unwittingly unearths an ancient creature with a thirst for blood. Meanwhile, a young couple breakdown and goes looking for assistance only to stumble upon the farm and the creature. Their only hope is to stay in the light.

Review:

This was a great vampire piece from Ireland. Now, maybe I'm biased because I love just about anything that comes out of Ireland or Scotland, but the location and the accents gave this movie a whole other level of charm for me. While they never come out and say what the creature is (even in the credits it’s listed only as “The Creature”), it’s pretty clear that we’re dealing with a vampire. This is a unique and very cool take on a Nosferatu-style vamp: very feral and animalistic. They play with the mythos a bit, making the Creature vulnerable to all light, not just the sun. And the progeny of this creature, aka those that are bitten and turn into creatures, turn to this brittle stone type of material that crumbles to dust very easily. This movie does a great job of working as a survival piece despite only having four cast members, one of which is the creature. The remote location, and the timeless feel help to pull you into the struggle to make it through the night. The major fault of the movie is that light is such a huge component of how they stay safe and fight the creature, that when it does go to darkness it becomes nearly impossible to see sometimes. There are certain scenes where you might as well just be staring at a black screen. Overall though, it’s a really well-done minimalist piece, and I love the fact that it’s an Irish horror film. Definite recommend.

Movie Count:

New Movies = 5

Total Movies = 7

Hoopla Breakdown: Hoopla is a digital borrowing service that many Ohio Libraries offer that allows patrons to borrow digital books, audiobooks, graphic novels, single issues of comic books, movies, and episodes of TV shows. You are provided with a set number of borrows each month. The amount varies by the library system. There are some limits on how many borrows that branch allows across its patrons each day, so it's better to try to get your borrows in early the morning of than it is the night before you plan to use them. This can also be an issue if you are looking to check out a TV Series because you have to borrow each episode individually. However, unlike other services, the items are always available. There is no hold system, waiting for other patrons to return their material before you get the title, or waiting for it to be delivered to your local branch for pick up. If you can find it, you can borrow it. Other benefits to this program are that you can stream directly over your data connection or wi-fi, or if you are concerned about saving data, you can download the material for offline access. The Hoopla app also has a casting feature so you can stream the title from your device to a larger screen using devices like Chromecast.