Chaqille Nikita
As a lover of *interesting* "horror" and "thriller/chiller" films and also being a person who often stays up quite late, I was lucky enough to see this on free-to-air TV, and geez, was I impressed!! The actors chosen to tell the personal tales of real people (most of whom are/were Aboriginal Australians) were TERRIFIC as were the stories themselves, which, while ranging from deeply moving to somewhat humorous to downright spooky, were also filmed beautifully; the set-up of the camera(s) - focusing on the actor and not moving - lent an eeriness to the film, and, whether digitally imposed or not, I SWEAR I saw figures (very faint figures) moving occasionally in the background of the shot (in at least two, MAYBE three of the stories; now how often can we say with modern "chillers" that we're not SURE if we saw a ghost/figure etc.??) Really, a sign to me of great and fun filmmaking!! On another, very relevant, note, it is TERRIFIC to see *so many* of our beloved Aboriginal (and white) actors together in one film, as well as a few actors who, until now, were unknown to me, whether because they are new to film or because they are stage actors (I'm too poor to get to the theatre as often as I'd like - and *ought to*!! 😞) I HIGHLY recommend this film and I applaud the makers for setting out to tell the stories of Aboriginal Aussies on the subjects of death, spirits & spirituality and, of course ghosts and "hauntings". What *I* learnt from this film is that MANY of our First Australians have a very unique and respectful way of remembering, approaching, and sharing stories of those who've passed on. 5 Stars - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Chaqille Nikita - Melbourne, Australia.PS. In my opinion, the most "scary" and emotional story was the true and quite distressing recollections of Dr Romaine Moreton, a Goenpul, Jagara and Bundjulung woman (of Stradbroke Island and Northern NSW.) While researching materials at the National Film and Sound Archives she was housed in the building adjacent to the NFSA - the former home of Sir Colin MacKenzie, a white man who had studied, examined and dissected the remains of Indigenous Australians, before stealing their remains and displaying them at home and abroad (in Great Britain, for example.) And before the Archives moved into their current building (the one that Dr Moreton was studying in,) it was the Australian Institute of Anatomy - Sir Colin's "office", if you will, and the building housing the unburied remains of so many Indigenous people. As she tells her story of discovering this (shameful) history in the very space she was working in, it is easy to empathise with her and to understand how she experienced her own horrific haunting, the details of which you will discover for yourself! Hopefully . . .
Tammy Wolffs
I went to see The Darkside on the strength of Warwick Thornton's earlier work, Samson and Delilah, which I already think of as an Australian classic. This movie, though, is a really different beast.When I came home and my kid asked me about it, I said it was a good movie, but not my kind of movie. The cinematography was beautiful and the concept was different (a series of short stories told to camera, mostly by actors, from recordings by the original storytellers) but, admittedly, I pre-judged the idea of people telling stories, rather than acting them out, as boring. I felt they should be reserved as ghost stories for cold dark nights around a campfire or stormy nights in a "haunted" house.I also didn't like the idea of passing off people's supposed experiences with spirits of the dead as true as it plays on people's gullibility – both of the storytellers and their audiences. Some of the stories themselves were harmless enough, depicting the ways people cope in laying to rest loved ones, particularly where there is some underlying guilt (when someone close to us dies, we can feel that we weren't close enough, didn't spend enough time, didn't help enough when they were ill). And the yarn told by one colourful character was entertaining and funny – thankfully, they didn't use a stand in actor for that one! But then there were the stories that made me angry. They were the ones that left already vulnerable people exposed and open to ridicule. The strongest example is the woman who believes that her family is cursed following the discovery and use of a Ouija board and that it is this that explains why so many of her family members have died and/or been severely affected by mental illness.I realise now, though, that my initial judgement was totally wrong. How many movies give you a sleepless night because they bring out such powerful emotional reactions? How many movies make you think, make you angry, stay with you?This is one movie that I have to see again – I'll be viewing it through a different lens the next time around.
