DARK COUNTRY

US, 2009, 88 minutes, Colour
Thomas Jane, Lauren German, Ron Perlman.
Directed by Thomas Jane.

Dark Country is Thomas Jane’s directorial debut. It is a surreal thriller, seemingly realistic at first, then more and more surreal, especially as rear projection is used for so much of the travelling through the desert.

The basic plot seems simple: a couple get married in Las Vegas, travel through the desert, are infatuated with each other, suddenly find a man on the highway whom they knock over. They take him in the car, struggle with him, find that he dies and that they bury him. Then the wife disappears – and the husband goes seeking her, seemingly seeing her buried but seeing another woman. The police (in the person of Ron Perlman) pick him up, go to a burial site with a number of police, only to find that this is a supernatural graveyard – and that the husband is actually the man who was lying injured on the road. He is in the back of the car – and is a kind of mirror image, alter-ego.

The film may have no logic, but it is an exercise in surreal psychology.

1. The impact of the film? As a thriller? Horror overtones? The emergence of the supernatural and surreal plot?

2. The dark country of the title, the desert at night? The roadside motels, the highway, the cemeteries? The musical score?

3. The work of Thomas Jane, his being the hero, his being the injured man? His work as director?

4. The presentation of Dick and Gina, ordinary couple, the marriage in Las Vegas, their banter on the highway? Sexual talk? The shock of seeing the man on the road, his bloodied face? Their decision to take him? The eerie presence, the confrontation, the fight, death? Staying at the motel? Wanting to get help? Dick and his trying to confront the situation? The disappearance of Gena? His encounter with Deputy Thompson? In the car, trying to explain things, the ironic comments of Thompson? His wanting to go to the cemetery, seeing a different woman dug out of the grave? The cemetery with the police, the graves? Finally finding the man? And the irony that it was himself? The double journey, the role of Gina as wife?

5. Gina, ordinary, in love, the marriage? The talk? The encounter with the injured man? With Dick, trying to solve the situation? Her disappearance? Reappearance?

6. The deputy, the typical redneck of the southern states? His disbelief? Taking Dick in the van, going to the cemetery, the other police? His comment? Dick’s awareness of the reality of what had happened?

7. An interesting thriller – with the supernatural touch? The outer limits, Twilight Zone kind of story?