Hold The Dark
released 2018
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“Hold The Dark” is an American horror, thriller film based on the novel of the same name written by William Giraldi with the screenplay written by Macon Blair. It was produced by Russell Ackerman, Eva Maria Daniels, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, Ben Browning, Luc Etienne, Uwe Feuersenger and John Schoenfelder. It was directed by Jeremy Saulnier and stars Jeffrey Wright, Riley Keough, Beckham Crawford, Michael Tayles, Issac Bird, Joseph Whitebird, Zandus Snow, Julian Black Antelope, Alexander Skarsgård, Conor Boru, Anabel Kutay, Emmanuel Imani, Tantoo cardinal, Clarence Hoof, Savannah Bird, Karen Powderface, Eric Keenleyside, Ryan Irving, James Badge dale, Brian Martell, Sean Hoy, Jonathan Whitesell, Savonna Spracklin, Makambe Simamba, Gabriel Gross, Lonni Olsson, Barb Mitchell, Macon Blair, James Bloor and Peter McRobbie among others.

Hold The Dark IMDb webpage

“Hold The Dark” is the story of a wolf expert named Russell Core, played by Jeffrey Wright, who is asked to come to Keelut, Alaska by a woman named Medora Slone, played by Riley Keough. Medora asks Russell to come all the way up north because her son went missing and was presumably taken by wolves. Now in this town child abduction by wolves was not that uncommon. Some of the townspeople even set up patrols to safeguards their childrens´ way to and from school because the police would not do it. Russell is a man who struggles with personal problems of his own but goes to see Medora anyway. He tracks the wolf pack that is assumed to have taken Medora´s son and finds them while they are in the act of `savaging´ one of their pups but what he discovers later on is truly horrific.

“Hold The Dark” is a very good movie that deals with issues of isolated communities and people. It deals with the different kinds of isolation of communities and individuals and the consequences from it. For example, you have the Slone family which has suffered generations of isolation and scarcity. You also have the native Americans who are isolated from vital resources like a police department that responds and cares and probably a health care system that pushes them away or even neglects them. You also have the isolated community of European Americans who get involved in drugs and crimes therein related. This part of the world does not get tourists, people passing through or people moving in. They´ll never have immigrants. They are utterly alone and that is why there is such a feeling of sadness from all these people.

This is an interesting story on isolation of communities, individuals and even isolation of individuals from resources. I saw a lack of healthy bonding rituals from the people of this area. Call my a city boy but there were no cafes, restaurants, bars, theaters or any other place where one can go to waste their time with other people. I´m sure that these people hunt and fish together and even drink together but I felt that they needed more.

I loved this film because I had to peel away layers of the story to understand what is going on. Layers like the horrific violence committed by the people and animals alike. I also had to look beyond very strange behavior and refrain from making hasty judgements. It´s easy to label the people as bad without looking into the lives they lead and the stresses they must deal with, (in this case it is stresses they deal with their whole lives). But in this story things are more complicated than that. In this story people behave the way they do because they are under extreme stress, and have been for a long time. You can describe the character´s situation as them being at the mercy of their environment and liken it to a flag blowing in violent winds and fraying away.

So check out “Hold The Dark” because it really is a good film. I loved the way the story twisted and turned in strange directions. I really like this film and so will you. Take care folks.

I try not to give away spoilers for any films, especially good ones like this, but it´s hard and I feel a movie like this one will be so misunderstood by bloggers and critics. So below this line are some film spoilers.

—SPOILERS BELOW—
—DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN `HOLD THE DARK´—

The idea of the movie is that you have the Slone family that has been living in isolation for so long it becomes a detriment to them and they are no longer sane. Russell is told that Vernon Slone, played by Alexander Skarsgård, was made to drink wolf oil as a boy because his father thought there was something wrong with him. Judging by Russell´s reaction he seemed to understand the situation. He understood that studying the Slone Family was essentially studying a wolf pack.

Basically, the Slone children, Vernon and Medora Slone, adopted the cultural characteristics of the successful species in the area, the wolves. The Slone children have a child together and live intimately together and when Vernon is away in the armed forces in the Middle East, Medora does what she has to to bring him back. It is her way of staving off extreme isolation and encroaching insanity. She savages her son to get Vernon back just like the way the wolf pack savaged one of their pups at the beginning of the story.

The Slone children adopted the characteristics of a wolf pack. They are not evil, they are insane. That is the sad truth of the Slone family.

This is the story of a strange kind of collective Stockholm Syndrome where some members of the community go to the extremes.

John

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