Dark Souls (2010)

Touches You

Excellent but underrated film

Best movie ever!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

DARK SOULS is a dark and dingy slice of Norwegian horror, made on a tiny budget. The story is about characters who go missing only to reappear somehow different. It's a story that flirts with tropes from the zombie genre but which plays out as a slow-moving police procedural for the most part. There's a lot of low key investigation, a lot of wandering around in poorly-lit locations, and more plot than expected for such a low budget feature. I found the horror content too self-limiting and the film to be lacking the requisite power needed to make it work.

I was first alerted to this film by spotting it on the CV of musician, Wojciech Golczewski, whose incidentals had added so much to the evocative atmosphere of 'We Are Still Here (2015)'. Here, his menacing strings accompany casually stunning jogger Johanna (Johanna Gustavsson), alerting us to the fact that, as she runs through sunny glades, she's in imminent danger. As the film's title suggests, it's only brief moments before a masked man in industrial overalls holds her down and forces a drill into her head.Despite dying, she is soon back at her father's home. Breathing, but with no pulse, she is somnambulistic, only rousing to vomit black putridity over her father. Meanwhile, the driller killers (for there are several) claim more victims – discarding any males and concentrating on females.This story concentrates on Johanna's father Morten's (Morten Rudå) attempts to look after his deteriorating daughter. Watching as he tries to persuade others that the blackened, vomiting creature will 'soon be better' is deeply harrowing. The bemused apathy of the police is similarly distressing.Shot like a documentary in grainy images, the effects are probably the weakest link here. Whilst an abundance of black tar-like substances oozing from hair and bodies is pretty revolting, the execution of the illness belies this Norwegian film's lack of budget. The tone is refreshing, however, and doesn't always take itself too seriously, while certain moments recall the work of David Cronenberg and the rotting, limping, back-haired ghosts of 'Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)' and similar Asian films.It is unconventional also that a middle aged man should emerge as the hero of the piece, his vigilante actions uncovering a dark governmental secret, and distinctively so. As a whole, though, 'Dark Souls/Zombie Driller Killer' doesn't really live up to either its title, or the promise shown in early scenes.

When I bought this movie from Amazon, it was because of the title "Zombie Driller Killer". And to make things even more interesting it also said "invasion of the flesh eating living dead" underneath the "Zombie Driller Killer" title. But the movie is Norwegian and it is titled "Mørke Sjeler", which means "Dark Souls".Anyway, I sat down to watch the movie, and was frankly speaking more than a little disappointed. The "Zombie Driller Killer - Invasion of the Flesh Eating Living Dead" is nothing more than a cheap trick to lure in people looking for a zombie movie. This is nothing at all like a traditional zombie movie in any way possible. This movie is about some man in an orange jumpsuit that drills into women's brains and injects some liquid that initially kills the victim, but makes them come back from the dead. As zombies? Well, perhaps, but there is no flesh eating participating anywhere in the movie at all. False advertising on the cover in the worst degree.Story-wise, then this Norwegian horror/thriller movie is fairly weak, especially compared to "Død Snø" ("Dead Snow"). The movie trots ahead t a fairly monotone pace, as we follow Johanna's father in his search for the one who turned his daughter into a brain-dead 'vegetable'. The story doesn't really offer any scares or surprises.The movie is not all bad though, there are aspects of it that are great. There is a good continuous flow to the movie, as it trots on. And the dialogue is alright as well - just know that it is in Norwegian (if you don't enjoy foreign movies).The acting in the movie was good as well, of course not really award-winning material, but people did good jobs with their given roles. And not having seen that many Norwegian movies or television, then it was good to have a whole bunch of fresh faces that weren't associated with previous roles and characters.A warning to gore-hounds and zombie aficionados out there, this movie is by definition NOT a zombie movie, and you might up just as disappointed with this movie as I was.

The Pitch: Oily Vomit Of The Living Dead.The Review: I will be honest, this, in nearly 100 reviews I've written, has been one of if not the most difficult one line pitches to write. Part of that is down to how much is going on in this quiet little Norwegian chiller, which while running to only just over an hour and a half covers an awful lot of territory in that time. The one substance in abundance in this movie is oil, but it's not the only black entity around, as much of the humour is of the dark variety. Dark Souls attempts to put a smile on your face as it drills into your brain, and it succeeds to a large extent in that endeavour.We start with a young girl, Johanna (Johanna Gustavson), who is attacked by a man in an orange boiler suit with an electric drill and left for dead, found face down in the mud by the police who pronounce her dead and have her taken to the mortuary. This comes as a surprise to her loving father, Morten (Morten Ruda), who's seen her walk in the door not moments earlier. But there's something not quite right about Johanna any more, and she's not alone. While detective Askestad (Kyrre H. Sydness) attempts to uncover the truth behind these mystery murders, and the local doctor (Jan Harstad) attempts to uncover the truth behind these rather lively corpses and their strange symptoms, Morten attempts to re-establish family life with Johanna as best as possible, but is slowly but surely drawn into the secret world behind it all.Directors and writers Mathieu Petuel and César Ducasse obviously know their horror. There's a deliberate, unhurried pace from start to end and, as with so many other effective horror movies over the years, the pacing is used to build tension and to unsettle the viewer. This isn't your average American slasher, filled with jump cuts and loud bursts on the soundtrack in a vain attempt to summon up scares, everything here is designed more to pick at your nerves and unsettle, apart from the occasional head drilling, of course. The acting is generally fit for purpose, so while it won't win any awards, it does engage your sympathy in all the right ways, and Morten Ruda is the stand out, carrying more of the narrative as the movie progresses and allowing the mix of off-kilter laughs to blend perfectly with the feeling and the pain.The use of oil is also an interesting motif, but its allegorical use pales in comparison to the body horror of watching it exude from every pore of its victims, and it gives them a distinctive and effective look. There are also a lot of references to other horror movies thrown into the mix (more than this casual horror fan could ever detect), but the overall narrative, while taking occasional tangents, hangs together very effectively, and the abiding impression is of a deliciously dark movie that will creep under your skin like the oil in its victims.Why see it at the cinema: There's plenty of effective imagery, both subtle and in-your-face, and of course this is at its core a horror movie, so why not guarantee yourself a dark room with a large screen to make the most of the chills?The Score: 8/10