Film

The Dark and the Wicked

Name: The Dark and the Wicked
Genre: Horror
Released: 2020
Cast: Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr., Xander Berkeley, Lynn Andrews, Julie Oliver-Touchstone

A slow-burn folk horror film about two siblings returning to their dying father's isolated farmhouse, where grief and accumulated dread seem to open a door to something malevolent. Atmospheric and genuinely unsettling rather than jump-scare dependent, it's for viewers who find quiet wrongness more disturbing than gore. Director Bryan Woods builds dread through accumulation and implication.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want slow-burn religious dread where the horror lives in a grieving household's silences, bad sleep and rooms that feel wrong, and you're happy to sit in that unease for almost an hour and a half.

Skip it if you need clear scares, quick cuts or a plot that moves briskly, since this one prefers atmosphere and creeping discomfort to set pieces and rarely rushes to explain itself.

What it asks of you: Patience first: it lingers over quiet domestic moments in a single rural setting, runs about 95 minutes, and builds its dread gradually rather than in jolts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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The Witch2016

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Dark and the Wicked

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Dark Song2016

Both use rural isolation and grief as a doorway to the supernatural, never clarifying what's real and what's psychological collapse.

A woman and an occultist hole up in an isolated house for a spiritual ritual spanning months. It's technically a supernatural drama rather than horror, but the slow accumulation of desperation, faith, and psychological unraveling creates genuine dread. The connection: both are rural-isolation stories where grief and the supernatural become inseparable, and both refuse easy answers about what's real.

But Spiritual and philosophical rather than scary. Nearly two hours of two people in one room will bore anyone wanting plot or conventional horror payoff.

The Silence of the Lambs1991

Masterful thriller where psychological tension and character work create sustained dread. Hannibal Lecter is terrifying not because of jump scares but because he's genuinely intelligent and present in every scene.

But The serial killer genre can feel dated now. It's also very much a procedural, which means stretches of exposition between the high-tension moments.

The Lighthouse2019

Two men isolated in a confined space as madness and supernatural dread accumulate. Shot in black-and-white on tight 35mm, it's deliberately disorienting—formal choices that intensify the atmosphere rather than distract from it.

But Deliberately obtuse and hermetic. The accent work and period dialogue are thick, and the existential resolution won't satisfy anyone wanting clarity or catharsis.

Sinister2012

A writer discovers a box of snuff films in his new house. Genuinely creative scares built through sound design and implication, with an escalating sense that something ancient and hungry is drawn to his family's presence.

But The found-footage sequences are effective but can feel dated. And once the entity's nature is revealed, some feel the second half becomes more conventional horror-movie.

Martyrs2008

Relentless French horror that follows a woman haunted by trauma into a nightmare of religious extremism and bodily horror. Visually brutal and thematically ambitious in ways most horror avoids.

But Graphic violence and sexual assault occur throughout. It's testing in a way designed to provoke, not just frighten, and some find the ambition undermined by shock for its own sake.

Poltergeist1982

A suburban family begins experiencing escalating supernatural events in their home. Spielberg and Tobe Hooper created the template for family-under-siege horror, with genuine creeping wrongness beneath the 80s production design.

But The effects look distinctly of their era, and the tone can shift jarringly between comedy and genuine terror. The domestic setup takes time to establish.

The Wailing2016

A Korean mystery-horror where a village is plagued by inexplicable violence and a stranger arrives in town. Narratively complex and genuinely ambiguous about what's real, what's faith, and what's evil—never resolves neatly.

But Nearly three hours and deliberately refuses to answer its central questions. Some find it profound; others find it frustratingly obscure and padded.

Requiem for a Dream2000

Both create dread through accumulation and repetition, using formal filmmaking choices to generate wrongness. Both suggest forces—supernatural or psychological—that hollow out their characters from inside.

Four people's separate addictions spiral into personal apocalypse across a single summer. Darren Aronofsky creates nightmarish atmosphere through editing, sound design, and the accumulation of small degradations—no supernatural elements needed.

But Not horror, but genuinely harrowing. The visual style is relentless and exhausting. Some find it exploitative and one-note in its bleakness.

The Twin2022

Both are European folk-horror films with family tragedy as the open door, both shot with painterly composition, both leave you uncertain whether the horror is supernatural or internal.

A Finnish horror film where a woman returns to her childhood home after a traumatic loss and begins experiencing reality-bending strangeness. Gorgeously composed and genuinely eerie, with a folk-horror sensibility and an ending that reframes everything you've watched.

But Slow paced with a non-linear structure that won't reward distracted viewing. The ending is cryptic and some find it cheating rather than earned.