DARK TOUCH (2013)

Dark Touch (2013)
Directed by: Marina de Van
Written by: Marina de Van
Starring: Charlotte Flyvholm, Marcella Plunkett, Missy Keating, Padraic Delaney

DARK TOUCH (2013)
Written and directed by Marina de Van

Set in Ireland, a young girl named Niamh is taken under the wing of a family friend after the girl witnesses the deaths of her mother, father and baby brother at the hands of a possessed house. With the police convinced that the family were murdered by a gang, Niamh’s pleas of the haunted abode are left unheard.

After experiencing strange phenomena when she’s emotional, Niamh suspects she has the power of telekinesis but with a history of abuse against her, will she use her powers for good or bad?

Whilst an interesting premise of a girl who’s suffered at the hands of others and now has the ability to harm them, DARK TOUCH is a disjointed mish-mash of a movie that is really hard to get into. The lead actress who plays Niamh does quirky quite well initially but her lack of dialogue and her open-mouthed gaze soon become a bore, with no further character development for her. The relationship between Niamh and her new guardian Nat seems to be of distrust even though has always shown kindness and concern for the youngster, even when her parents were alive.

Other than an act of justice and a few odd displays of powers here and there, there’s nothing in the movie to entertain nor grip the viewer. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of telekinesis movies, I wouldn’t even say I was a major fan of Carrie, but Carrie has more going for it than DARK TOUCH has, with a plot that’s easy to follow and understand. Maybe I completely missed it with DARK TOUCH but I didn’t find any sort of narrative at all other than a pissed off little girl who has the ability to brutally harm anyone she wishes.

The film also contains some strange sexual references, which may signify sexual abuse in Niamh’s past, but the narrative never really explains any of that, leaving a rather vague backstory that neither the viewer nor the character of Nat, Niamh’s foster mother, will ever fully understand.

The only part of this movie that’s to be admired is the initial scenes where the parents are attacked in their own home by flying household objects. This is the most violent scene of the film which presents two gruesome deaths for horror fans to gorge upon. However, its effect is not impressive as it could have been due to the rapid cut edits to the film, meaning the viewer never quite knows where they are within the home.

The filmmakers have obviously tried hard to make this film a tense supernatural thriller, but what’s left is a broken toy of a movie that does very little to make the viewer empathise with the character of Niamh and provides next to no entertainment for the viewer. It feels like two writers with different ideas have had their screenplays combined together to try and make a complete one, but instead it’s left the film very incoherent.

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