When Darkness Falls (2022)

Recently Tom Jolliffe, screenwriter for this movie, reached out to see if I'd like to have him on the pod to discuss it. It was a great conversation where he gave us a lot of insights on how the process of making it went, what went into certain decisions, and what they were aiming for. In addition, Tom writes for Flickering Myth, and has some great articles, including many action-themed one. In addition to us, our friends at the DTV Digest have covered this as well.

When Darkness Falls follows two American women traveling through the Scottish Highlands: Jess, who's more responsible, and Andrea who's a bit more of a free spirit. While on their way, there are two men in the area at the same time who are breaking into and robbing local houses, and in between jobs they're drugging and raping local women. The two pairs meet at a local pub, and when Jess is annoyed by Andrea hanging out with the guys, she leaves them, only to come back and find Andrea missing. Now it's up to Jess in this strange land to find her friend and make it out of the Highlands alive.

While this isn't my usual kind of film, I really enjoyed this. It's more of a slow burner than the high-octane shooter helicopter explosion-fest I'm used to, but in the slow burner vein it really works. I don't want to get into too many aspects of it so I don't give anything away, but with what I can tell you, the story itself unfolds in a very organic way, which is what we need if we're following the actions of someone like Jess as she moves along on her journey. From there we need a Jess who's very believable, and Michaela Longden in that role pulls it off. As director Nathan Shepka and Tom as the screenwriter weave in the actions of the other characters, they never get too far from Jess, which makes her the center of gravity around which everything else orbits. Just the same, the other actors turn in great performances as well, and included in that is the way they were able to make the Scottish Highlands a character in itself. It was at times vast and open, and at others claustrophobic, which furthered the dualities we find throughout the film: Jess's thoughtfulness and sense of responsibility versus Andrea (Emma O'Hara) and her carefree and reckless sense of adventure; the two women versus the two criminal men (Nathan Shepka and Craig McEwan) and the danger they bring; the vast open beauty of the Scottish Highlands during the day versus how sinister and claustrophobic they can seem at night. This had what you'd want from a taut, suspenseful, slow burning thriller.

One element that Tom told me about was how he an Nathan collaborated throughout the process. For example Nathan would find a location and have Tom write in a scene that included it. Tom was able to give us a sense that this isn't usually what happens, that more often he submits the script, and then everything from the film's name to the characters could be subject to change without his input. It still sounded fun to write those movies and see what the end product looks like, but here we see the fruits of a collaboration where director and screenwriter are working toward a common vision. If you look in the additional cast details, Tom also got a casting credit, and that's because he had a part in casting Michaela Longden as Jess, so even that was collaborative. The result was something that felt really authentic, which is something I always appreciate.

Here in the US we usually think of New York City as acting as a character when a move takes place there. A lot of times with independent films or lower-budget films, the geographical location doesn't matter as much, it's more about finding the cheapest place that works. Montreal is a great substitute for NYC, Bucharest works instead of London, etc. In When Darkness Falls though, the Scottish Highlands function the way NYC does, and we get its beauty and vastness on display, especially in these drone shots. The other decision Tom and Nathan made was to have Jess and Andrea be Americans, which not only enhances their sense of being in an entirely foreign land, but also enhances the Highlands as a character. They easily could've just set this in Any Remote Village, UK, and it would've worked to some extent, but by doing it this way it works that much better, and it's touches like this that can make all the difference in an independent film that's working on limited resources.

One thing I realized when I watched this is how much my brain is velocitized to the action films I'm used to seeing. Not only that, but even the bigger budget films like The Rise of Skywalker that I saw recently move quickly with a lot of split-second shots. It took me changing how my brain worked to slow it down and trust the process of what was happening here, and when I did, it paid off. The problem with my brain being velocitized is a slow burner can feel slower than it really is, like when my buddy and I were driving 100 MPH on 95 in Maine between Bangor and Millinocket, and then when we got off the highway in Millinocket and were only going 50, we felt like it was 20; when I see a story taking more time to unfold, I have to convince myself not to get antsy. If you're like me and you watch a lot of action films, it's good to recognize when the velocitization process is happening, and try to account for it--or do like I needed to do, and watch something other than action movies.

Finally, we had two English actresses playing Americans, with a script written by someone from England as well in Tom. The result was there were some moments where they gave themselves away. One big one was when they used Celsius to describe the temperature--10 degrees for us in Fahrenheit is much colder. My anthropology professor was from Nottingham, and he talked about the differences in UK and US English, including a story about how in a class before mine with him, he said the term for board eraser in the UK is "rubber," and if you go to someone's place to get them in the morning, you "knock them up," to which an American woman in his class said "if you come to my place tomorrow morning, make sure you bring your board eraser." All in all, I think Tom did a great job writing for his two American characters, and the decision to make them Americans had a greater effect in providing the mood and atmosphere they wanted; and besides, I don't know how well I'd do writing UK characters--I know "windshield" is "windscreen" in the UK from the Depeche Mode song "Fly on the Windscreen"--which was used in a Miami Vice episode--so that's a start.

And with that, let's wrap this up. In the US you can currently rent this on Amazon Kindle VOD, or you can buy it on DVD if you're a fan of physical media. It's worth checking out and supporting this project, so however you get it it's good. And if you want more info about the film, you can check out the podcast episode we did, ep 103, on iTunes, Spotify, or if you're viewing the web version of the site as you're reading this, you can right-click to save it on the left-hand side.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13330168

And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, A Girl and a Gun, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!