It's Bay Of Blood (or, by default, Friday The 13th if you prefer) meets Long Weekend in this slow burn, atmospheric horror film from Scotland. Directed quite skillfully by Marc de Launay, this isn't the type of film that surprises you with jump scares or flashy gore but rather one that creeps up on you with subtlety and unsuspected menace.

The film follows a family headed up by a middle aged woman named Jane (Vanya Eadie) and her two kids, a snotty teenage daughter named Chloe (Imogen Turner) and her younger brother, Sean (Callum Warren-Brooker). They're joined by Jane's meek boyfriend, a tall gangly guy named Alex (Len McCaffer), and it's obvious that Chloe isn't keen on mom's new man even if Sean seems okay with him. At any rate, the four are off for a stay at their grandmother's Oceanside home, a beautiful stately old stone manor on a remote section of the coast when they hit a bird on the way. The bird is obviously struggling and in pain, and Chloe encourages Alex to put the poor thing out of its misery.

What no one realizes is that grandma is dead. In the opening sequence she's hit over the head with a typewriter by Jane's stepfather, who in turn was brutally stabbed by an unseen killer. The family arrives at the home safe and sound but don't understand why grandma hasn't shown up yet. Regardless, they don't let that stop them from wandering around and checking out the property, all while a bizarre bug collecting scientist named John (James Bryce) and a rather morose looking handyman type named McKenzie (Niall Greig Fulton) appear to be up to no good. As the family explore the area and wait for grandma to show up, the body count steadily increases and what was to be a relaxing family vacation soon turns into a nightmare.

Dark Nature isn't a particularly original film - it borrows very, very heavily from the aforementioned Mario Bava film and while if you're going to borrow it pays to borrow from the best, those familiar with the earlier film will get a definite sense of déjà vu. Elements from the Australian nature gone amok film Long Weekend (recently remade with Jim Caviezel in the lead) are also worked into the film, the scene involving the dying bird on the roadway absolutely invoking memories of that earlier picture. These familiar elements do go some way towards diminishing the film's suspense factor, but thankfully Launay and his cast are able to compensate for this by working in some believable performances and providing a couple of memorably tense set pieces.

The film moves at a very deliberate pace and at times almost feels padded with its endless scenes of characters wandering the undeniably picturesque shore, but it wraps up nicely with a solid twist ending, even if, again, that ending is a bit predictable. Shot with a modest budget on digital video, the film isn't flashy but it does have some effective murder set pieces that allow for some solid effects work though it's by and large a film that relies far more heavily on atmosphere and mood than on gore and shock value. It's also a beautifully shot film, with the cinematography really doing an excellent job of capturing the loneliness of the remote locations and allowing for the otherwise very scenic locations to take on an ominous and macabre tone.

Dark Nature isn't a classic for a new generation, it just simply borrows too heavily for that to apply here, but it is a solid thriller with an interesting, if familiar, storyline, some strong performances from a cast of appropriately cast actors, and some great visuals. Those who enjoy the build up as much as the pay off ought to give this a shot, as really is quite well done.

Video:

Dark Nature debuts on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen 1080p high definition transfer. The quality of the image is limited by the format on which it was shot and you don't quite get the depth and detail here that you would out of a good film sourced HD transfer, but the quality is okay. Some shots look a bit flat but color reproduction is nice. Some ringing is noticeable in spots and some aliasing as well but detail is definitely above what standard definition can offer in some spots. There aren't any compression artifacts to not but sometimes the blacks look a bit noisy for whatever reason.