Spoilers are ahead: in order to give a real flavour of why we have covered this film on the blog and also why you should see it, there are spoilers afoot.
The Darkest Universe is a very simple premise - it is about a man named Zac who is looking for his sister Alice. She has gone missing with her boyfriend Toby and they have apparently disappeared on a narrowboat. The film was BAFTA nominated and would on the surface sit in the drama/mystery genre.
However - I always do like a good however - the realest of horror sits inside all of us. Whilst ghosts, monsters, zombies and things that go bump in the night can give a thrill, the real horror is us. It sits inside us. It is the realisation that we should have interacted with others in a completely different way and that the outcome has perhaps damaged us.
The real horror in The Darkest Universe isn't the mystery of what has happened to Alice and Toby. The horror is the pathos shown throughout this small and yet expertly insightful film. Throughout Zac's interaction with Alice he is frequently seen to be pushing her away.
He describes her as 'strange' and is overbearing to the point of being abusive. At one point he shouts and screams in her face. Alice is absolutely strange - with a suggestion at one point of possible autism but this is quickly dismissed. She seems to meet a kindred soul in Toby, who is also very much in his own world - or perhaps his own 'darkest universe'.
Zac and his girlfriend Eva are wrapped up in their own lives; she with her shop and he with his finance work and the state of the flat in which they live. He appears on the surface to offer Alice a boon in the form of her moving to the narrowboat, but his 'generous' offer quickly turns to a discussion about money. Alice is the free spirit whilst Zac is highly driven to the point of losing his shit quite often.
The film itself is told in a variety of flashbacks and it is plain that Zac deeply regrets some of his behaviour, even if he continues down his path of self destruction in trying to find Alice. Some people are absolutely doomed to their own fate and Zac is clearly such a man. There is some humour in the film but there is also much poignancy and even a sense of tragedy.
The way in which Zac acts and reacts to others would suggest underlying mental health, whilst Alice seems to be so disconnected she is willing to drift through life. This represents the antithesis of Zac's existence and provides an excellent foil to his constant pushing for perfection.
Whether Alice and Toby did vanish in a flash of light to 'The Darkest Universe' or that is indeed the Earth on which they found themselves is immaterial. What is clearly apparent though is that this film is an excellent mirror to some aspects of modern life and all the horror it can represent.
Watch this film with an open mind, I strongly recommend a viewing.
4/5
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