Never After Dark is a ghostly good time that subverts expectations
While the influences of writer/director David Boyle's Never After the Dark are clear, especially The Shining and the Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters, Boyle has a way of constantly subverting expectations that makes Never After Dark feel fresh and original. Additionally, the movie has its share of creepy scenes, while never feeling like the typical, run-of-the mill ghost story or haunted house narrative.
Never After Dark stars Shogun actress Moeka Hoshi as Airi, a traveling medium who visits various locations to essentially help spirits cross over to the other side. When the movie opens, she takes a job at an abandoned hotel and is hired by Teiko (Tae Kimura) and her son, Gunji (Kento Kaku). Teiko believes that a restless spirit haunts the property, while Gunji is far more skeptical and hopes that Airi can dispel his mother's fears. The dynamic between Teiko as the believer and Gunji as the skeptic does create an interesting relationship between the mother and son characters, though more could have been done with this aspect to add more conflict and character tension.
From the get-go, Boyle thwarts a viewer's expectations. Airi's drive to the property resembles the Torrance family's journey to the Overlook Hotel at the beginning of The Shining. However, instead of a foreboding atmosphere, enormous mountains, and brooding music, Boyle instead shows how this is just part of Airi's daily living and job. Her car is filled with possessions, for example, showing how she moves from place to place like some traveling ghostbuster. She has no fear or hesitation, and she also converses with the spirit of her deceased sister, played by Karumi Inagaki. Yet, all of this is normal in Airi's day to day life, including her conversation with her dead sister, who can't move on because she and Airi are so emotionally attached to each other.
Never After Dark is a slow-burn film, and some horror fans may want to jump right to the action and scares. However, this is a movie where the characters need to roam around their environments for a while first, especially Airi. Boyle goes a long way in establishing tone and atmosphere, and the abandoned hotel is quite spooky. Doors open on their own. A grandfather clock keeps time when it wants to, and there are plenty of shadowy hallways. Additionally, Jonathan Snipes' score is great, including drums that sound like a thumping heartbeat. The property's biggest fright factor is a male ghost (Mutsuo Yoshioka) with a bloody, gaping mouth. Through an elaborate process involving scales, candles, and a mirror, Airi pierces the veil and frequently encounters this ghost. She tries to unlock his presence from the property to help him cross over. The ghost constantly claws at a cupboard, seeking something that viewers eventually learn is quite grisly and grotesque. It makes for one of the eeriest characters committed to a horror film so far this year.
In keeping with defying a viewer's expectations, Boyle shifts the narrative quite a bit in the second half, moving from a ghost story set at an abandoned hotel to a crime thriller, and yes, there are a few sequences late in the movie that should please horror fans. They are unnerving, gory, and unsettling. Yet, there is connective tissue between the ghost and what eventually occurs in the film's second half. So it's not a totally wild leap without any narrative continuity. Through it all, Airi remains grounded and sticks to her procedure and work, and there's a lot to be said for Hoshi's performance throughout the film. She's a strong lead in this context, playing a medium who talks to her deceased sister, sees ghost, and yet, somehow, remains absolutely grounded.
Overall, Never After Dark is a non-traditional ghost story with clear influences, but Boyle is careful never to veer into the cliche or overdone tropes. While the film may move too slowly for some, this is a film that warrants and rewards patience. It's a frightful good time.
Never After Dark opens in theaters on September 25.
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