Dark Corners

DARK CORNERS

A 2006 film that follows a woman named Susan who frequently dreams about being a different woman named Karen, Dark Corners includes some imagery that was so disturbing I had to look away from the screen during three different scenes.  The plot’s ending confused me at first, but I’ve since read some interpretations on discussion boards at the Internet Movie Database that make sense.  Susan is young and married.  She and her husband want to have a child.  They live a fairly idyllic life in upper-class suburbia.  Susan’s existence is soured only by her nightmares in which she is a dark-haired mortician’s assistant.  She goes to see a hypnotherapist who temporarily vanquishes the dreams about Karen.  (Karen, by the way, dreams about being Susan.)  Susan becomes pregnant but begins having nightmares again.  A serial killer known as the Night Stalker murders one of Susan’s co-workers.  The lines between the dream reality and Susan’s “actual” world begin to blur, and ultimately Susan too is murdered (I won’t go into detail about her death scene lest I spoil some of the imagery that’s open to interpretation as far as what the ending of the film implies).

Dark Corners has a lot going for it: a subtle musical score, an intriguing story that makes the viewer wonder almost immediately what the relationship is between the two realities, some surprisingly nuanced performances, and those dark and disturbing images that made me look away from the screen.  I found the finale confusing, but upon reflection and reading some theories online I do believe that the denouement makes sense and isn’t totally out of left field.  Here’s a fairly recent original horror project that’s not bad at all – enjoy it at your leisure.