THE DARKER THE LAKE
2020 // 100 MINS // 4K // ENGLISH // MYSTERY CRIME THRILLER // AUSTRIA
When strange, supernatural murders suddenly become the talk a peaceful town, two detectives must solve a deadly game, but will the myth of this game reveal secrets too close to home.
2020 // 100 MINS // 4K // ENGLISH // MYSTERY CRIME THRILLER // AUSTRIA
When strange, supernatural murders suddenly become the talk a peaceful town, two detectives must solve a deadly game, but will the myth of this game reveal secrets too close to home.
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STORY
The small, quiet town of St. Michael hasn’t had a suspicious death in the last 30 years, until now. As strange murders disturb the peace, two detectives must solve a deadly game where the myth behind it unravels the town’s urban legend and secrets too close to home. Detective Tamara Fischer is a logical, no nonsense woman, but she hasn’t been sleeping since the murders started and there are no leads. Her new partner, Detective Lukas Wiles, used to vacation in St. Michael when he was a kid. After finding a lost VHS tape for auction on the dark web containing evidence lost in the murders 30 years ago, he arrives back in town. In the tape, Tamara’s mother Lea, then 18 years old, confesses that she’s responsible for killing her friends in the fire that started while playing an addictive revenge game they call Painkiller. Lea, newly pregnant, spends the following year in an insane asylum and receives a letter with a small unmarked box. Lea, now 54 and blind, wears an identical watch to the one Tamara assumes her mom gave her as a birthday present. As Lea is pushed to talk about her past, things break but when Lea hears the familiar breathing of the Painkiller she knows the game has begun again and she can’t avoid being caught in the middle. The murders and suicides continue under mysterious circumstances as people kill close friends, lose time and memory, and utter the word “alpha” as their eyes hold a blank stare. A professor staying in town provides a lead that steers the detectives back to the ominous game that Lea holds the key to. As Lea finally agrees to share how the game is played it’s revealed that Painkiller isn’t just a game of revenge but a place to bring your pain, to be chosen by the shadow of the Painkiller, and to be set free thus reaching a place called “sunyata”. However, revenge isn’t sweet and “sunyata” is misinterpreted leaving the players with sorrow and rage instead of the freedom they sought. As Tamara and Lukas struggle to put the puzzle pieces together they know the case they’re building sounds crazy and they must find solid logic. The professor provides one with his explanation of the fear frequency which causes people to feel haunted and to hallucinate shadow figures. It can be produced, and amplified, with fans and vibration like the one that quickly spins in Lea’s bedroom. When Tamara’s insomnia begins to unravel her, she slips into a daydream of violence and sees letters written on the back of the wristwatch – a hint. When viewing the VHS tape alone, she has an encounter with the Painkiller that sends her reeling and grasping for answers to her questions. How many people has her mom played the game with and how many deaths is she responsible for? Lea knows she’s the one that must close the game. Yes, she’s played but not with the people that Tamara assumes. When Lea lights the candles for the final game to end it all she knows what she must do and her choices take her back to the lake to lose the things that tie her to her past. As Tamara and Lukas scramble to locate Lea, some of their questions are answered but the watch still remains, a gift that Lea says she didn’t give. Lea knows the danger of the watch but can’t bring herself to tell Tamara the rest of the story while Tamara feels as though it’s an invitation to play the game. For now, they are safe again in the peaceful town but across the lake, down in the belly of the hunting church, another game lies on the table. In a final reveal, the address on the letter that Lea was sent in the psych ward, traces back to London where someone is tinkering with a watch and measuring the frequency, someone that escaped the fire 30 years ago. |
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