Robert Frost famously wrote:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep”
A new film takes its name from these lines, and also a monstrously sinister interpretation of Frost’s words. Lovely, Dark, and Deep tells us the story of Lennon, who’s a new ranger at a national park, her sister having gone missing in that same park years before. In fact, many people have gone missing in that park, enough that there’s a whole lot of speculation on AM radio about who, or what, could be responsible.
And this all made me think of another line from Frost’s poem, namely: “Whose woods these are I think I know.” I will tell you now, Mr. Frost, you do not.
Lennon is taking over the station of a ranger who disappears into the woods himself, leaving behind a note that reads, “I owe this land a body.” One night, yet another hiker goes missing, and this time, Lennon finds the woman, who is wild-eyed and disheveled, and has pretty obviously gone through some stuff. But Lennon may have angered whatever is in the park, and she now has her own journey to take.
This is the feature debut for director Teresa Sutherland, and while it certainly has some of the rough edges and contrivance of a first film, it’s plenty apparent Sutherland has some good instincts. The movie takes its time, probably more than some people would like, but it worked for me, settling us into the darkness. The director moves the camera just a little bit here or there, and sometimes a lot more, in order to disorient and unsettle us as we try to make sense of what’s happening, and an extended sequence plunges us into a nightmare world that often really does play out with the non sequitur logic of a real nightmare. Whatever the success rate of Lovely, Dark, and Deep, and I think it’s more successful than not, Teresa Sutherland is a filmmaker to keep an eye on.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is available on VOD.
