Dark Touch
Director: Marina de Van
Writer: Marina de Van
Cast: Missy Keating, Marcella Plunkett, Padraic Delaney, Art Parkinson, Ella Hayes
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

[TW: Child Abuse – no explicit mention of it in this review, but it’s in the film, also not very explicitly but unmistakable]

Plot:
Niamh (Missy Keating) lives with her family in a house in which weird tstuff is happening – things are moving that shouldn’t move at all. And then one night, the house attacks the family. It is destroyed in the process and Niamh is the only one to survive. But the troubles seem to be following her even to her new foster family.

Ugh, Dark Touch was fantastic but one of those films where you really feel that you need a drink after you’ve seen it. It’s painful and really, really good.

There are many things that I loved about Dark Touch. It started with the fact that the film remains with Niamh all the time. It’s her perspective we see, her emotions we get to feel and her development we get to go along with. And that was beautifully done.

And that it was a story about child abuse as seen through the eyes of a child, a child that finds it has power after all, was a fantastic approach – and one that was damning to all parents in the general vicinity of the film. The well-meaning ones who were so insensitive I wanted to slap some sense into them as much as the actual perpetrators.

Missy Keating had a lot to carry on her shoulders in that movie, though Marina de Van’s general sense for atmosphere didn’t leave her all alone, and it worked in every single instance. She really was incredible.

And, as I said, the atmosphere was great, too. It started with the design of Niamh’s family home which was already perfect, continued with the general colors and ended with the spot-on pacing. I absolute loved it, even as it made my stomach knot and twist.

Summarizing: it’s a film that sticks around.