Review of Hold the Dark (2018) by Richard S — 05 Jan 2019

Wolf expert Russell Core is called to the remote Alaskan village of Kleelut by the request of Medora Slone whose boy is the third to be taken by wolves from their village. She wants Russell to return the remains of her boy and to kill the wolf or wolves responsible. Russell returns from his hunt empty handed to discover the body of the boy in Medora's house and Medora missing. Word of these events reaches Medora's husband, Vernon who returns from Afghanistan, covering the Alaskan frozen wilderness in the blood of anyone who gets in the way of his maniacal pursuit of his wife while Russell and the police attempt to find Medora before Vernon does.

I read William Giraldi's book a while back and really enjoyed it. He gave a the reader a brilliant sense of loneliness, isolation and encroaching darkness as the central characters paths all crossed out in the frozen wilderness. Plus there was a sense of an ancient mythical evil at play which I enjoyed.

The first half of the film is what can only be decribed as a lot of moody mumbling and the film only gathers pace when Vernon returns to find his wife but even then it begins as serial killer noir and then evolves into a strange horror flick and there are countless back stories and explanations that are missing from the book. It's a shame because I was expecting big things from the director of Green Room adapting such awesome source material.