Euro-horror has become one of the more profound sub-genres of film. I can’t recall who it was that recommended A Dark Song—set in Wales although filmed in Ireland—but it was immediately obvious I was in for a treat. Dealing with Gnosticism, occult, and demonic manipulation (I wish I had the script!), it takes on the big issues of death, loss, and forgiveness. The premise begins chillingly enough. A woman rents an isolated country house for an entire year, paying in advance so there will be no disturbances. She brings in an accomplished occultist to let her speak to her dead son again. The two don’t know each other and this ritual will take many months, during which they will not be able to leave the house. Neither really trusts the other, but Joseph (the occultist) tells Sophia that she must obey everything he says if she wants the ritual to work. Once they begin they cannot stop until it reaches its conclusion.
Sophia hasn’t revealed the real reason she wants to summon her guardian angel. She wants revenge on those that used the occult to murder her son. The truth Sophia kept from Joseph requires them to restart, so he drowns her in the bathtub and then uses CPR to revive her. As they grow increasingly tense, a fight breaks out where Joseph is accidentally impaled on a kitchen knife. With only bandages and whiskey to treat the wound, they press on, but Joseph dies leaving the ritual unfinished. Sophia can’t escape but after being tormented by demons, her guardian angel arrives. Her request is actually wanting the ability to forgive.
This profound story has many twists along the way, but a scene that I would like to consider is where Joseph tells Sophia “Science describes the least of things… the least of what summat is. Religion, magic… bows to the endless in everything… the mystery.” The suggestion that science is indeed correct, but limited. Religion goes beyond science, however, to the world of possibility. The movie suggests these two worlds intersect. After Joseph dies Sophia can’t escape that other world until its rules have been met. And when she does reenter the world of science, what happened in the world of magic has lasting effects on her. A Dark Song is one of those movies that will haunt you after watching. The Euro-horror of the last decade or so has been incredibly profound, showing the promise of what horror can be.