They Wait in the Dark is a 2022 American horror drama film about a young woman and her adopted son who are on the run from her abusive ex until a supernatural force from her dark past begins haunting them.
Written, co-produced and directed by Patrick Rea (I Am Lisa; Monster X; Arbor Demon aka Enclosure; Nailbiter). Also produced by Hanuman Brown-Eagle, Jake Jackson and Ashley Mayer. Executive produced by Meagan Flynn.
The Smart Mouth Productions movie stars Sarah McGuire, Catherine Winkel, Patrick McGee, Meagan Flynn, Brinklee Wynn and Paige Maria.
Plot:
Amy (Sarah McGuire) and her adopted son Adrian (Patrick McGee) are on the run from her abusive ex-girlfriend, Judith (Catherine Winkel). Desperate to stay hidden, Amy and Adrian take refuge in her family’s abandoned farmhouse outside her Kansas hometown.
Soon, a supernatural force from Amy’s dark past begins haunting Adrian. With the vengeful Judith in pursuit, Amy and Adrian find themselves locked in a showdown between the threats both outside and in…
Reviews:
“From the very real terror of abusive relationships to the supernatural world of possession, They Wait In the Dark is an intense heart-pounding thrill ride of a film. Director Patrick Rea has plenty of credits on his directing resume — I Am Lisa is probably the best-known — and has used that experience to put together a unique and tense film.” B&S About Movies
” …starts off like a social-realist drama, takes you down a supernatural blind alley or two while giving off noir thriller vibes once the true nature of Amy, Judith and Adrian’s relationship (and the identity of the ghostly apparition in the house) is revealed. Let’s just say that Adrian is going to need a lot of therapy to work his head around his three mummy issues that are going to traumatise him for the rest of this life.” Britflicks
“Writer/director Rea (I Am Lisa; Arbor Demon; Nailbiter) is adept at penning realistic dialogue, and blending drama with the otherworldly. They Wait in the Dark continues this trend, as he provides fragments about Amy’s present and past sparingly but continuously as the story moves forth, with the relationship between Amy and Adrian feeling quite believable.” Gruesome Magazine
“In They Wait in the Dark, there is a good twist that just has a touch of the lazy “red herring”-meets-lies. Again, my pet peeve, but I just cannot enjoy a twist that goes against almost everything we’ve been shown and/or lead to believe. I just get irritated rather than wowed. Having said that, I found Sarah McGuire to deliver a very strong performance as Amy, while the young Patrick McGee was very natural as her son, Adrian.” 3 out of 5 stars, Heaven of Horror
“Yes, They Wait in the Dark ended on a pretty good note, but on the whole, I still wasn’t a huge fan of this film. The poor characters and mediocre scares outweigh the things it gets right, so I’m sad to say I wouldn’t recommend it.” Horror Obsessive
“Rea plays interestingly with our sympathies – on one level, all these people are awful and have done unforgivable things, but they’re also trapped and trying to get by, even trying to do the right thing. The movie may press a few too-familiar buttons – especially with the flashbacks to young Amy (Brinklee Wynn) being traumatised by her mother (Meagan Flynn) – but springs several surprises, and the home stretch is scary and affecting.” The Kim Newman Web Site
“There are some lapses in logic […] And scenes sometimes linger longer than necessary, the actors looking like they’re spinning their wheels while the film’s slight runtime begins to feel padded. But thanks to sly manoeuvring of genre expectations and a handful of uncomfortable scenes, They Wait in the Dark leaves an impression.” 3 out of 5, Maddwolf
“The location where Amy spends most of the movie shows the pain she has left behind and why she has become the way she has. They Wait in the Dark is a tense thriller with a shocking reveal.” 3 out of 5, Movie Reviews 101
“Playing upon ideas of demons and ghosts to reveal, layer by layer, a damaged woman’s awful, unconscionable past, both distant and more recent, They Wait in the Dark is ultimately a tale of revenge, and also of recovery, as an innocent is not only saved from an unspeakable predicament but also manages – maybe – to break the infernal cycle. For here primal scenes overlap and repeat, creating ever more horrific scenarios for impressionable children to witness, where their – and our – complicity as viewers is called into question.” Projected Figures
“The specter haunting the house is kept mostly off-camera until near the end of the film, but when we do see it it is creepy looking, if not terribly original. But the focus isn’t as much on it as it is on what humans are capable of doing to each other. And that is almost always the greater horror. And Rea does a good job of getting that point across.” 3.5 out of 5, Voices from the Balcony
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