So Dark the Night

I suppose this is a noir film, in a mild sense, but its so bonkers and esoteric in its story beats that it quickly veers into horror proximity. So Dark the Night, director Joseph H. Lewis’ sophomore slump, is a weird, shapeless thing.

I’m not sure if its pretentions or what, but So Dark the Night begins as a mere detective number set in France with disparate parts that never quite come together. Then there’s the slow unraveling of the killer’s identity and a character’s crumbling psychological state, which are a Venn diagram situation, that feels at odds with the love story introduction. It’s a perpetual bait-and-switch situation that never quite finds a coherent scenario to build upon.

So Dark the Night feels far more like a story built upon maximum shock appeal and fractured identities. It’s not that we’re asked to sympathize with a potential killer that put me off, there’s plenty of stories that ask this of us, but there’s no hold on the character for us to grasp. It’s an odd film but not an unenjoyable one. It’s parts are great even if I’m unsure what they add up to or if they add up to something worthwhile.