Coming out under the After Dark Originals label, Soter’s Dark Circles warns viewers against having children and moving into a new home. When a jazz musician (Johnathon Schaech, Quarantine) and his wife (the luminous Pell James, The Lincoln Lawyer) do both, bad things happen. Things like:
• seeing visions of an undead woman and her bloody preemie;
• finding burnt dolls;
• capturing ghostly images on a video-equipped baby monitor;
• and hearing a sink yell, “Bitch!”
OK, so the latter turns out to be the husband, but it’s an effective moment. In the beginning, Dark Circles is all about effective moments, but the longer it goes, the fewer it has left to offer. The fresh parents becoming so sleep-deprived is a relatable scenario, but it also allows Soter to “cheat,” to show us things that aren’t really there.
Still, those things can be disturbing to see, even sad, and the movie ends up strong as a whole. It’s no Repulsion, but it’s far from repellent. —Rod Lott
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This article appears in May 8-14, 2013.