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https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/9jmgsl/official_discussion_hold_the_dark_spoilers/

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majorspoileralert
Well I need a cigarette after that mindscrew. It's been awhile since I watched a movie that took a re-watch and google to figure out what was going on. Mulholland Drive was the same for me, and it's still one of my favorite movies. Here's what I think happened:

A female werewolf living in remote Alaska marries a man and they have twins (Medora and Vernon)

The twins are not werewolves, but they have inherited their mother's wildness and can't fight it.

Due to isolation, or maybe pack instincts, the twins enter an incestuous relationship. (It was wanted by both of them, the flashback to the hot spring where Medora is happy and enthusiastic about the romance proves it)

The twins' father sees something 'unnatural' in Vernon. Whether this is the incest or his lack of empathy (wildness, psychopathy) is unspecified. He tries to 'cure' Vernon, and it's insinuated that Vernon eventually kills him.

The twins live an uneasy life as a married couple in Keelut. The locals don't approve of them, but are also afraid of them. (The locals likely know about the pack of werewolves and that the twins are children of a werewolf)

The twins have a son. Something isn't quite right about the boy. In the flashback scene with the dead deer, he says it felt great to kill, and immediately asks about killing people. So he's inherited his grandmother's wildness, and his father's urge to kill. Vernon lives by a strict code that keeps him (somewhat) in check, when he leaves, Bailey doesn't have that guidance anymore.

Vernon has a strong impulse to kill, so he goes to war to scratch the itch. This is during the war in Iraq, so he likely found the pull of 'righteous' killing irresistible.

With Vernon gone, Bailey follows his urges and kills two local children. This is where it gets interesting: is Bailey a werewolf, and did he kill as a wolf? In the opening scene of the movie, when he sees the wolf approach him, he doesn't look afraid at all, just angry.

Medora has to face the truth: her son is a dangerous psychopath (and possibly werewolf) who killed two innocent children. This is a terrible crime, especially in the eyes of the local Indigenous (Cheeon's line about the death of a child being the death of the future).

Her wildness and pack instincts come through and she 'savages' Bailey, killing him for the good of the pack.

Her humanity comes through and she freaks the eff out about what she did.

Why did she hire Mr. Core? A few reasons, I think. She wants him to find her werewolf mother in wolf form and kill her, since that is the source of all the 'darkness' or wildness in her life. I think she is conflicted about this, but feels it has to be done. She also knows that killing her own son is beyond the pale, and that she should die for it (Vernon will grant her wish). Core is a storyteller who understands wolves, so he's the perfect person to bear witness to the awful events at Keelut.

The scene where she's bathing and whispering to herself is telling, here's the text: 'Is he up there? Is he down there? Goddamn demon. Goddamn murderer. It's how they are. Who are those we cannot see? If he's up there at least... maybe at peace.' She's in shock over what she's done, wondering if she sent her 'demon' son to heaven or hell.

Medora 'confesses' to murdering her son with the wolf mask and putting Core's hand to her throat.

Core does find the werewolves, but he can't bring himself to kill one.

Medora allows Core to discover Bailey's body out of guilt, then she runs to the same Indian Hunter who was supposed to cure her brother all those years ago. He has no answers for her, so she leaves her wolf mask (choosing her humanity over the wildness, rejecting the dark) and goes to wait for Vernon in the hot spring, knowing full well that he'll kill her.

Vernon, meanwhile, descends into total wildness. He loved Bailey, ignoring the dangerous wildness in the boy because he thought he could teach him to control it. Despite what she's done, he still 'loves and needs' Medora and no one will kill her but him. He kills anyone who threatens that (policemen, Old Witch, Shan, the Indian Hunter, etc)

The shootout: I think the whole point of Cheeon mowing down the policemen with a machine gun is the clash of civilization against the cold, merciless wild. Before he starts shooting, he berates the sheriff for trying to impose the 'city' way of life on the village and act like a hero for it. Cheeon knows about the werewolves, the twins, and that his daughter was murdered, either by a werewolf or by a child with 'darkness' in him. Cheeon is enraged to have this outsider policeman come to his door condescend to him about what happened when he really knows nothing. Plus his daughter is dead, the future is dead, and he has nothing to live for, so he snaps and starts shooting. Yes, it is over the top and not how people normally react, but it was shot that way for a reason.

As Cole, the sheriff, and Vernon close in on Medora, Vernon has gone 'total wolf' - hence the mask, and kills the sheriff.

He puts an arrow in Core and then goes to kill Medora.

As he strangles her, she pushes the mask off his face, reminding him that they are, in fact, human, despite what their mother was. The shock, paired with his ('multifaceted', shall we say?) love for her, stops him from killing her.

Why doesn't he kill Cole? He retrieves the arrow out of necessity; he and Medora are going to the wilderness after all. Maybe it's because he knows Cole understands wolves, and what it is to live where they do? ('I think you understand now, about the sky')

The twins retrieve their son's body and go into the wilderness.

Core tries to crawl to safety. The werewolves find him, and recognize that he didn't shoot him before. They take him to their home (There are the same amount of women as wolf pack members) and help to heal his wound. All of the women look Indigenous to the region, save one blonde, Nordic-looking woman, the twins' mother. She recognizes Vernon's boots and takes them outside, clutching them to her chest, maybe to go look for her children?

The werewolves save Core from death and help get him to the Keelut hunters, who take him to safety.

Core lives, and prepares to tell his daughter the strange tale of what happened.

I still have a few questions though:

What did Medora really mean with 'there's something wrong with the sky'? Was it just the extreme length of days and nights that far north is does it mean something else?

Why didn't she get rid of her son's body before she called Core? Guilt? Shock?

Why did Vernon take Bailey's body from the morgue? To avoid DNA analysis revealing that his parents were twins? To give him a proper burial according to local Indigenous customs? And what was up with that blood ritual as they buried him, was it to honor Bailey or because he was a 'demon'?

Why did the twins take Bailey's body with them into the wilderness?

What was the significance of the Old Witch's story about the wolves decimating the villagers infected with influenza?

Overall I liked the experience of the movie: the performances were excellent, it made me want to know more, and the 'aha' moments as you figure things out were really fun. It did creep me out though and I had to sleep with the light on!

Po skončení filmu jsem měl chuť režiséra (popř. scénáristu) popravit. To byla teda chujovina !!

Dorazne vsetkych vystriham pred touto kokotinou! Slusne sa to nedalo napisat.

minimum 3 semestre psychologie a bol by to film pre kazdeho ... bravo

Poprosil bych, aby mi někdo vysvětlil pointu všech scén.

je to venku Hold.the.Dark.2018.1080p.NF.WEBRip.DDP5.1.x264-NTG

Temný a tajemný film který vypadá jakoby vypadl z mé domovské destinace ?

Wow, moc jich do světa nechodí.

První dojmy z Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) exkluzivně na Filmtoro.cz

Představení projektu

nerad mívám přehnaná očekávání, ale tohle bude pecka. kvalitní herci, kvalitní prostředí a vlci

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