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The Passion of Darkly Noon
UK / Germany / Belgium 1995
produced by Dominic Anciano, Frank Henschke, Jim Beach (executive), Ray Burdis (executive) for Fugitive Features, Alain Keytsman Production, hauskunst Filmproduktions
directed by Philip Ridley
starring Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd, Viggo Mortensen, Loren Dean, Grace Zabriskie, Lou Myers, Kate Harper, Mel Cobb, Josse De Pauw, Gabriele Binder, Maximilliam Paul, Knut Samel
written by Philip Ridley, music by Nick Bicât
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the rural South of the USA, a dying
man with the weird name Darkly Noon (Brendan Fraser) - so called because
his bible thumping parents (Kate Harper, Mel Cobb) have chosen to name him
after a random Bible quote - is dropped onto the porch of Callie's (Ashley
Judd) house in the middle of the woods. She nurses him back, and when she
learns he has just lost his family, she offers him to live at her place,
considering him a son of sorts. He gladly accepts, even though he, brought
up according to the writings of the bible, takes his time to take to her
free-spirited lifestyle. Plus he starts having erotic feelings for her -
unsurprisingly, with her only being a few years (in real life only a few
months) his senior and very seductive in nature. And having all of his
life been taught to supress his sexuality, he has problems telling an
innocent tease from full on seduction - so basically he falls
head-over-heels in love with her ... and then her mute husband Clay (Viggo
Mortensen) returns from a trip through the woods pretty much out of the
blue - the very Clay she has talked about quite so often that Darkly
believed him to only exist in her imagination. He tries to keep his calm
as they make out pretty much before his very eyes, and he can see them
lovemaking from his window - but it gets too much eventually, so he runs
off into the woods - and stumbles upon Roxy (Grace Zabriskie), a woman
whom he takes an instant liking in because she knows her way around the
bible and thus speaks his language - but she plants evil seeds in his
mind, convincing Darkly that Callie is a witch as she has many moons ago
killed Roxy's husband and bewitched her son Jude to stay with her. So more
and more Darkly finds himself torn between the woman who has spurned him
and an evil story that falls in line with his beliefs - a state that can
only lead to utter disaster ... Now above might sound a bit
like a run-of-the-mill horror thriller, and despite never denying its
genre roots, the film plays much more like a really dark fairy tale,
thanks to a very moody directorial effort that gives the whole story a
magic feel, thanks to its art direction, colour grading and the like, and
that really plays with its erotic undercurrents rather than just being
full-on like in erotic thrillers popular at the time. Now add to that some
absurd and decidedly artistic touches on one hand, a great ensemble cast
on the other, and you've got yourself a very special movie that despite
being quite unusual is very hard not to love!
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