Friday, June 20, 2008

Dark Knight of the Soul

Author(s): Tony
Location: Pittsburgh

"Dark Night of the Soul"

Directed by William Friedkin
Written by Paddy Considine
Produced by Michael De Luca

Main Cast

Jonathan Jackson as Count Grishnackh
Michael Pitt as Euronymous
Edward Furlong as Dead
Freddy Rodríguez as Hellhammer
Joey Kern as Maniac

Tagline: "Controversy, Carnage, Evil, Mayhem"

Synopsis: The sky is blanketed by swollen, gray clouds. Under this leaden bell jar, an hour outside Oslo in the Norwegian Countryside, lie the remains of Holen Church, burnt to the ground. Such events have gone on for years in the devestating country of Norway. A new lifestyle was created, a new way of living, a new breed, when in 1983 the guitarist Euronymous formed the band "Mayhem". Known mostly for their unique style and obsessions in gore and violence, Mayhem brought so much more to the country then music, but rather a risky way of life, with the drummer, Hellhammer, being the only composed of the bunch. The story started when lead singer, Maniac, had to be confronted by a mental institution, claiming he was sick of life and had a failed attempt at suicide. It was then new lead singer, Dead, would follow. Dead was fascinated in death, satanism, and occultism. Often he would bury his clothes in the ground along with a dead raven for weeks, then wear them to get a real feel for "death". He would also bring raw pigs heads on stakes on stage, licking the blood from the stake, and cutting himself numerous times. Only 22 years old, Dead had killed himself, found with a shotgun wound to head and lacerations to the wrist. The most bizarre about it was that when Euronymous found the body, he decided to take pictures, one of which was the album cover for one of their albums, making a necklace out of his remaining skull and cooking his brains in a soup with potatoes and carrots. In time it was later found out that Euronymous would become more demented and disturbed then Dead.

Euronymous had no remorse, no pain, and no feelings. He felt great pleasure in the fact that his very own friend Dead had killed himself. Euronymous had a business, he owned the record store Hell, but beneath Hell was the Inner Circle, an underground party where his followers would gather, wearing corpse paint, cutting themselves with knifes and broken bottles. He wanted to incite young people to violence, methods of torture, and causing nothing but chaos. However, it was when Count Grishnackh, bassist at the time, decided he wanted to prove to be more evil then Euronymous and Dead. He's cold and intense, his emotions and actions based more on ideology than anything inside his heart. The Inner Circle devised the idea of setting fire to the pride of Norway, burning down churches, raising havoc among the countryside. Euronymous predicted that Grishnackh would soon do something even grander to get his face in the papers. It was then Grishnackh had murdered his own friend Euronymous, stabbing him 23 times. The police had questioned more than 100 black metallers. Grishnackh appeared in court wearing pigtails and spiked leather gloves, constantly using a sinister laugh, taking the whole incident as a joke. It was then reported that the shells used in Deads suicide were given to him by Count Grishnackh. The Count remains in prison to this day.

Black Metal continues to stun idyllic Norway with ideology and terrorist acts. It is corrupted by a whole different society, churches continue to be burnt down and murders are often occured.

What the Press would say:

"Dark Night of the Soul" is the film the world has been dying for. Finally, a horrific, psychological look at real life human behavior, the other side to horror, the real side. No unrealistic torture gadgets, no burnt man in haunting your dreams, this is the real deal, and fascinating enough, director William Friedkin brings us this original masterpiece full of new ideas and ways of directing that really quite haven't been used yet. Dark Night takes you on a complete mind race, meaning it shifts you into certain gears, those gears witnessing demented behavior, while taking it as an entire new film experience and appreciating its abilities. Friedkin teases you in some shots, the infamous scene in particular where in which we see the soup being made but we never see the brains go in and it leaves us in questions. Later in the film it's revealed that Euronymous has added that ingredient and we are left speechless. The film is narrarated by Freddy Rodríguez, or Hellhammer. If there's anything sane in which this film provides it's Freddys great portayal of a character that can sort of relate to us in the audience. He's going through the madness, much like we're going through the war in Iraq, Hellhammer sits back and witnesses all the hell break lose, the hell in which he has no control over. He's a troubled man, and the performance is strong. Jonathan Jackson and Michael Pitt pull off quite frankly the most disturbing duo film has ever seen. It's a complete rush when these two are in the same scene. Their friendship seems like it can't be broken, there's trust between them, but deep inside each of them they know what their capabilities are, and in actuality have more hate for each other then likeness. Both guys are pitch perfect and should be credited for it, they are evil as they come in their own special ways. To add on the magnificience of each character, the actors had to speak with a Norwegian accent language, very dedicated were these young men.

People may question this films intentions, but let me remind you the thing that seperates this film from the rest of the horror genre is that this film truly comes from the soul, William Friedkin turned a risky subject into a film clinic, much like The Exorcist, "Dark Night of the Soul" is especially horrifying with great performances and wonderful production value to follow up with it. It's a real look at different places in the world, a unique, documentary like aspect of the real life horrors and conflicts that are going on outside of our country, well it's something to be accounted for, and this film is something to be accounted for.

FYC:

Best Picture - William Friedkin, Paddy Considine, Michael De Luca
Best Director - William Friedkin
Best Supporting Actor - Jonathan Jackson
Best Supporting Actor - Michael Pitt
Best Supporting Actor - Freddy Rodríguez
Best Original Screenplay - William Friedkin
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Make-up
Best Original Score

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