Out of the Dark Movie Review – Surprisingly Poor

Runtime: 92 minutes

Release Date: April 10, 2015

Rating: R

Director: Lluis Quilez

Out of the Dark opens in the early 1990s. An older doctor gathers a group files and tries to set the papers on fire before hearing a series of noises that sends him running in terror. What looks like a group of children then come out of the darkness and chase him until he falls off a balcony to his death.

The film then jumps to Sarah and Paul in the present day. Sarah's father owns a large paper mill in the same town where the doctor once lived and offers her a high paying job. Though the two have a young daughter, Hannah, they think that the move will do them good. They continue thinking that, even after learning that they will be living in a large house far from the city. The two live here in the care of a sitter to explore the town and its annual festival.

When they return, they discover that some weird things happened that night. The sitter tells them that she thinks their house is haunted, which causes Paul to fire her. Hannah becomes incredibly sick and only gets worse. The mill doctor, the son of the doctor from the beginning, promises to help them. Though he does tests and draws blood, he claims that everything came back normal and that it's just a virus.

As Sarah becomes caught up in her work, she learns that several young children went missing two decades ago. Hannah becomes so sick that they finally decide to take her back home for help. Before that can happen though, a group of strange looking children with bandages on them lure Hannah outside and then disappear with her. Sarah then discovers that some of the kids who went missing had the same symptoms as Hannah and realizes that what happened in the past has a deep connection to the present day.

Let's get this out of the way. The main reason I watched Out of the Dark was for pure nostalgia. Julia Stiles of 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance plays Sarah, and Scott Speedman of Felicity fame is Paul. Put either of them in anything, and I'll probably watch it. Sadly for me, that means I was stuck watching this.

The thing about Out of the Dark is that it doesn't really bring anything new to the table. I can't count the number of movies I've seen about parents moving to the country and something weird happens to their child. I kept waiting for something that would make me scared, make me worried, or at least make me care. I just didn't find anything I really cared about in this one.

Paul and Sarah have so little chemistry that it makes you wonder why they got married or had a child and why the hell he agreed to follow her to the middle of nowhere. They don't seem to care all that much about the fact that their daughter will grow up in some foreign country with no friends nearby and no knowledge of the language either. It ended up feeling like they didn't care, so why should we care either.

Even though I watched this one for free on Netflix, I wouldn't recommend it.

Come Back to Me Movie Review

Runtime: 90 minutes
Release Date: July 25, 2014
Rating: R
Director: Paul Leyden


Dale is just a poor young guy when his father brutally murders his mother at the beginning of the film as he holds his rabbit and listens to her screams. When the police show up, they swear that his mother is dead, but when Dale goes into see her, she suddenly starts moving again.


Cut to Sarah and Josh, a young married couple living in Las Vegas. Sarah is a graduate student and Josh works in a casino. Though she recently survived a serious car accident and has no source of income, Sarah really wants to have a baby, but Josh wants her to focus on her recovery. He also wants them to meet their new neighbor, who turns out to be a now adult Dale who doesn't seem too thrilled that they brought him store bought cookies.


Not long after, Sarah begins experiencing vivid and realistic dreams that always seem to end in her death or the death of her husband. Unable to cope with the dreams and frightened of falling asleep, Sarah turns to her best friend Leslie. Leslie convinces her that the dreams are simply night terrors and something many people go through, but she can't explain why an old scar Sarah had suddenly disappeared. Though willing to accept her explanation, Sarah doesn't know what to do once she finds bloody clothing and other things that indicate her dreams aren't just dreams.


Come Back to Me is one of those movies that after it ended, I was left with my WTF face firmly in place. It was also one of those films that I really wanted to talk about with someone, but unfortunately, no one watched it with me. It was so strange that I know it will stick with me for a long time.


Katie Walder, who I only know from Rules of Engagement and How I Met Your Mother, was a good choice as Sarah, though I do have to say that she occasionally overreaches a bit. Matt Passmore from The Glades and Nathan Keyes also did well in their roles as Josh and Dale. Keyes is equally parts creepy and normal, which leaves the audience wondering what connection he has to the current story, if any, and how the beginning of the story connects to the rest of the film.


As a former fan of As the World Turns, it was nice seeing Maura West again too. Though she's barely in the film, she turns up towards the end in a pivotal role. She has one of those scenes that left me shouting at the television. Fans of the old soap opera may also get a kick out of knowing that director Paul Leyden previously appeared on the show as Simon.


It's hard to say much about Come Back to Me without giving away too much of the film, but I really did enjoy it. I ended up recapping the entire movie to my roommates in the car later that night and then encouraging them to go home and watch it. Though it occasionally came across as a little like a Lifetime movie, it was interesting, creepy, strange, and a little weird.