DARLIN' (2019)
Label: Dark Sky Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 101 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.00:1)
Director: Pollyanna McIntosh
Cast: Pollyanna McIntosh, Lauryn Canny, Cooper Andrews
Darlin' (2019) is the third film chronicling the character of "the woman" (Pollyanna Macintosh, The Walking Dead), based on a character created by novelist Jack Ketchum. This sequel is coming off of the Lucky McKee (The Woods) directed The Woman (2011) and the Offspring (2009) before it. Star Pollyanna Mcintosh takes up writing and directing chores on this one, offering a bit of a more refined and palatable approach to the feral cannibal woman, with previous film The Woman having been a rather unpleasant and dehumanizing ordeal, but this third film still offers plenty of squirm-inducing moments, biting social commentary and some weird moments of humor.
At the start of the film the Woman (Mcintish) is guiding a younger feral teen (Lauryn Canny) to a hospital on the edge of a wooded area, urging her to go inside alone for reasons not exactly clear, it sort of seems she's being abandoned or ostracized, things become a bit clearer later on. After being hit by an arriving ambulance the wild child is admitted into the hospital were she is treated but uninjured, with doctors and nursing staff discovering her feral nature as she acts out violently and seems unable to speak. A kind-hearted nurse named Tony (Cooper Andrews, Mcintosh's The Walking Dead co-star) dubs the wild child "Darlin'" after a name printed on the bracelet she's wearing. It turns out this is a Catholic hospital so they do things a bit different, with the local Bishop (Bryan Batt) arriving, seeing the feral child as a publicity opportunity for the church, sending her to an orphanage to be domesticated and brought to the glory of the Lord. The Bishop puts her in the care of the Sister Jennifer (Nora-Jane Noone, The Descent), a former addict who is complicit in the unorthodox Catholic-taming of the girl, but who is also one of the only sympathetic figures among the adults at the orphanage.
Mcintosh takes a bit of a backseat at this point, falling into the background as we follow the story of Darlin' and her Catholic taming at the orphanage. She quickly becomes acclimated to hew new life, learning English, and becoming friends with some of the girls at the orphanage, but also coming to question the teachings of the church, which makes her unpopular among the craggy old nuns. Not surprisingly the Church is not painted in a kind light here, with the Bishop having predatory leanings, attracted to the feral innocence of Darlin', only to be horrified when he discovers she's not so pure as he at first thought.
Eventually the Woman comes back to the hospital looking to reclaim Darlin', going on a bit of a kill-spree, gutting a clown in the children's ward, but not finding Darlin' she winds up being side tracked, becoming a protector of sorts for an oddball troupe of homeless prostitutes, before ending up at the orphanage where bloody mayhem ensues.
I was a bit surprised when this third entry turned out to be my favorite of the trilogy of films, it's well-written and well-shot, offering some entertaining commentary of the Catholic church and black humor along the way, though the humor sometimes feels awkward and misplaced. I found Lauryn Canny to be perfect as the feral teen, she gets across the innocence and vulnerability of the character, but is also quite ferocious when her wild side is unleashed. While Mcintosh falls to the wayside for a bit she also comes through with a wonderfully feral performance that is more three-dimensional than previous films in the series allowed, which I found quite enjoyable.
I think Cooper Andrews is perversely terrific in the predatory Catholic Bishop role, with the nun played by Nora-Jane Noone being a bit more sympathetic, but also complicit in the corruption happening here, trying to fight the system while wearing her own scars from past abuses.
Audio/Video: Darlin' (2010) arrives on Blu-ray from Dark Sky Films in 1080p HD framed in 2.00:1 widescreen. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround sound. Extras include a 25-min making of featurette, 2-min of deleted scenes and a selection of trailers from Dark Sky Films including Darlin'.
Special Features:
– Feature Commentary with Writer/Director
– Behind the Scenes (25 min)
– Deleted Scenes (2 min)
– Trailers: White Chamber (2 min), Level 16 (1 min), Darlin' (2 min)
Darlin' (2019) is an interesting film, it manages to cover a lot of ground while also touching on themes of Catholic corruption, homelessness, abortion and suppression of women, while also telling the story of a wild child the church seeks to tame for all the wrong reasons, while still offering some decent visceral gore and violence. The is my favorite of the three films in this series, I definitely tip my hat to writer-director-actor Pollyanna Mcintosh for the strong script. themes and visuals she brought to the film.
