Fantasia Festival 2020 Film Review: The Dark and the Wicked

Bryan Bertino’s new possession horror film, The Dark and the Wicked, is a merciless gauntlet of grief, trauma, and violence. Centered around a nerve-fraying performance by Marin Ireland, the film is rife with effective scares and blistering violence that become increasingly heavy. The Dark and the Wicked is birds of a feather with the director’s cult debut, The Strangers, and while the film takes the home invasion concept to a new place, it struggles to rekindle its predecessor’s razor-sharp tautness. Minor spoilers ahead…