Dark Beach - DVD

Movie: For marine biologist Beth (Geraldine Hakewill) and her sweetheart Harry (Henry James), it's supposed to be the perfect romantic vacation: 10 days on a deserted island in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. Equipped with enough supplies, a tent and a wireless phone, the lovers want to enjoy life to the fullest here. They make love on the beach, cuddle up cosily by the campfire and explore the fascinating underwater world. But the idyll does not last long. Strange noises, footprints on the beach and strange tracks in their camp make the two realize that they are not alone on the island after all. At first they think that two Greeks, who have anchored their boat off the island, just want to scare them and have their fun. But the truth is much scarier - and more dangerous...

For his new film Dark Beach, Australian director Bill Bennett (Stolen Hearts) was inspired by experiences he himself had on a 1975 trip with his brother and their girlfriends to an island in the Great Barrier Reef. From this he conjured up a nice ghost story that doesn't offer much new dramaturgically, but has a certain charm just because of the fascinatingly beautiful landscape in which it was set. Bennett succeeds quite well in making the viewer feel how a dreamlike idyll can quickly turn into a nightmarish place where fear and death reign.

The first half hour of the film is relatively uneventful. Here, the couple is merely shown exploring and enjoying their little vacation paradise. While doing so, Beth is also allowed to give some information about the Great Barrier Reef in her capacity as a marine biologist. This is quite nice to watch, but it's not really exciting. Only slowly Bennett, supported by a very atmospheric soundtrack, tightens the tension screw. However, he relies more on simple creepiness than on drastic horror. This provides again and again for a few nice goose bumps moments, the very big thrill, however, is missing.

As an island variant of the Blair Witch Project with a little Paranormal Activity, the mystery thriller works quite neatly also because of the good ending. If you don't expect more than a nice ghost story in front of a picturesque scenery and if you put up with the very slow beginning, Dark Beach can be recommended to you. Who, on the other hand, looking for tangible horror, the whole thing will probably only little good to gain.

Picture + Sound: At the beginning, the island idyll does not shine in powerful, warm colors, which are very well implemented on the DVD. In these mainly bright sequences, the overall sharpness is also right, which can also convince in the representation of smaller details. The darker the action gets, the more the colors and brightness disappear as well. The image sharpness also has to accept a few minor quality losses in the dark scenes, but overall the positive and atmospherically coherent overall impression prevails. With the German sound, it is noticeable that the centrally mixed dialogues somewhat overpower the ambient noises and the small sound effects, while they are somewhat more harmoniously integrated into the events on the English soundtrack. But since no surround fireworks are fired anyway, this is still enough for a satisfied: good!

Extras: The bonus material includes a Making of (approx. 12:45 min.) that is worth seeing, in which not only the inspiration for the story is discussed, but also the various difficulties that the filming brought with it. A few alternate scenes (approx. 5 min.), as well as eight interviews with the creators and cast (approx. 33 min.), the trailer, and other programming tips from the provider round out the decent additional offerings.

Conclusion: Dark Beach mixes elements from works like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity with a dash of Lost to create a whole quite worth watching. While the first thirty minutes of beautiful, dramaturgically but rather irrelevant snapshots of the supposed island idyll are determined, the whole thing clearly picks up speed towards the end and then also has a few nice goosebumps moments to offer. Really original it is not, but who appreciates simply knitted creepy in front of a dreamlike scenery, should give this technically well implemented DVD quite a chance. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp