A Dark Song is as gentle, tense, and lyrical as its title suggests, the story of Sophia (Catherine Walker), a grieving mother who doesn’t want to reflect on her loss and doesn’t want to move on: she wants her son back, a desire that puts her in a house for a month with a troubled occultist (Steve Oram) with whom she will embark on a months-long Gnostic ritual to ask a favor of her guardian angel.
Although the movie doles this plot out in doses, knowing ahead of time doesn’t spoil much, as it’s only the foundation of the movie’s gripping and clearly well-researched dive into occult magic. Thanks to nuanced performances from its two-person main cast, the movie’s clinical procession through the phases of the ritual never gets too cold or alienating--their behavior in the face of obstacles both supernatural and just plain natural is reassuringly human, keeping things grounded and believable even as the movie introduces reasons to doubt and rethink what we’re shown. It’s horror is the slow-burning kind, more of a persistent, unshakeable mood of dread and impenetrable mystique rather than a series of jump-scares and lulls; and while there’s certainly blood, it tends to trickle and drip rather than splatter and splash.
Don’t Look Now,Changeling, and The Innocents have all used the loss of a child as the basis for vastly different but equally powerful explorations of the nature of parenthood. This year, we can A Dark Song to that list.
-Brian L.
Archival details
- Original URL
- https://metallifestyle.weebly.com/curtains-movie--tv-reviews/31-nights-of-horror-night-six-a-dark-song
- Recovery source
- live-weebly
- Recovery date
- 2026-07-22
- Stewardship polish
- 2026-07-22
- Preservation status
- restored
- Missing assets
- None recorded
Preserved by Bloodsoaked Media · The Archives