While the 2023 horror/drama "Lovely, Dark, and Deep" is gorgeously shot, I take umbrage with the plot.
Like major umbrage. The summation of the story seems to be this: Stay out of the woods. And I don't love that. Some may disagree with me - after all, there are plenty who live in stunning, remote, forested areas who would much rather keep tourists out. I'm not one of those.
Where I live, tourism keeps things running. In fact, this winter - '23-'24 - has been unusually warm, leading to a massive loss of revenue for ski resorts, plowing companies, and everything to do with snowmobiling. Think of all the bars and restaurants that are packed in the winter with hungry, happy winter adventurers - none this year.
Anyway - here's my review of "Lovely, Dark, and Deep" and why the ending is not it. Spoilers ahead.
Georgina Campbell is compelling as Lennon, a national park ranger whose career was inspired by a childhood tragedy - the disappearance of her younger sister Jenny, who vanished into Arvores National Park, a fictional park in an undisclosed location. Lennon is quiet, socially awkward, broody. It's clear that she's haunted by the loss of her sister - and that her return to Arvores is a clear attempt to find answers.
Shot in Portugal, the film boasts stunning landscapes and sweeping shots of seemingly endless woodlands, lakes, mountains, and rocky crags. Sunsets, sunrises, stars - it's all eye candy. More intimate shots of tents surrounded by fog and Lennon's cozy cabin add to the camping vibe. In short, it's clear from the cinematography that there's a reason why people want to visit the area.
The only other really strong character is Annie Zhang, the head ranger, played beautifully by Wai Ching Ho. She may seem like a negative character, but in the end, her heart wins out and she makes a difficult choice. It may not negate the things she's done, but she does save Lennon from what seems to be a terrible fate.
The other characters are ... fine. There's Jackson, who's been a park ranger for ten years, who acts as a mentor to Lennon. Then there's a sweet older couple camping in the woods. And that's about it. It's not a large cast. It is strongly character-driven, focused on Lennon and her search for answers.
As she hikes her designated region of the park, Lennon listens to podcasts describing a large instance of mysterious disappearances in national parks, typically near major bodies of water. It should be noted that Lennon's sister was never found - no body, no sign of a struggle, just a shoe. It's not quite clear what Lennon is searching for - Jenny's body, maybe. Or some sign of what happened.
Such spoilers! Very tell! Do run if you do not want!
One night Lennon is awakened in her ranger cabin by a panicked, nearly incoherent man. She rushes into the woods and finds him - but he reports that his friend has gone missing. in the morning, a helicopter brings searchers, and they all head out to find the young woman. Lennon, however, is told to stay put.
As if. She puts a sign outside her cabin and yeets into the woods. It's dark by the time she located the missing girl, who is gibbering nonsense and covered in blood. "Are you real?" she asks Lennon, who replies that yes, she's real.
The next day, Lennon gets told that because she disobeyed an order, she's done as a ranger. She has five days to prepare and pack; then she's getting shipped out. Zhang seems furious, and Lennon doesn't quite understand why. What she does understand is that she's almost out of time - so, defying orders yet again, she heads back into the woods to search for signs of Jenny.
And that's where it gets weird - which is not why I'm complaining, by the way. I love a good cosmic horror. And this one is good. I won't spoil it all the way - there are some horrifying visuals that are delightfully creepy - but it boils down to this: unknown entities occasionally take people from the woods. Why? We don't know. For what purpose? No clue. How are they chosen? Nope, don't know.
What's key is that the rangers know about it. And they let it happen in exchange for - apparently - not being "taken" themselves. Because, as Lennon finds out, if you interrupt the process, you get taken instead. The girl Lennon found was a victim of these unknown entities. She wasn't supposed to be found - but Lennon didn't know the rules.
Weird. But still not my complaint. We'll get to that.
So on Lennon's second unauthorized walkabout, she begins to experience bizarre and impossible things - getting strangely transported to the other side of the park, seeing and hearing things that couldn't possibly be there, encountering the elderly hikers who don't seem to be able to see or hear her - and some unknown being speaks through her radio, telling her (essentially) to murder the sweet old couple or she'll be "taken" to replace the girl she "stole" (aka saved).
Lennon refuses. Then she slips into some kind of other world where she wanders through twisted versions of her own memories. It seems like she is indeed "lost" - but then, in a watery dark cave-like place, she encounters Zhang, and somehow, it really is Zhang.
So now Lennon finally gets told the truth: yeah, we knew about it; yeah, we let it happen. Why did no one tell Lennon? Zhang explains that rangers "in the know" wait for newbies to come to them, talking about weird things in the woods. Then they're told "hey, sometimes people who get lost will ask us if we're real. We say no and back away slowly."
Zhang gets emotional - it's clear she hated this system but saw no way to fight it. She confesses that Lennon's sister was taken and she knew, which she regrets most of all. She then sacrifices herself (somehow) and Lennon is set free to swim to the surface of Bench Lake, where she's recovered by Jackson.
Ending spoiler alert!!
All of that is - I don't know. Awful but fine, because we know that Lennon is a good person, right? She refused to kill the couple to save herself. Surely she'll fight this horrible system. Even if the ending is a cliffhanger, with Lennon making plans to root out these unknown creatures, that's still okay.
But we don't get that. In the end, another hiker goes missing; Lennon finds him; he asks her if she's real. SHE SAYS NO. And WALKS AWAY. Implying that the system will continue unchallenged, the whatever-they-are critters will keep stealing random humans, and nothing will change.
I hate it. It's sad, it sucks, it's like "the man" winning (were "the man" some sort of evil entity). But moreso, it implies - to me, anyway - that the main message of the film is that the woods are inexplicably dangerous and no one will help you if you get taken by aliens. Or whatever. And that the system of rangers meant to protect you are corrupt.
Such an ick. I'm very curious as to whether any real park rangers will be offended by this film. So anyway - a reminder that I live in an area thick with massive national forests, and this is not a thing. Do people go missing? Sure. Is it monsters? I doubt it. Do rangers work with the monsters to allow supernatural kidnappings? Come on.
So I don't know - it was a gorgeous film, the main character was likeable (until the end), it was a fascinating character study, and the spooky visuals were great. But I hate the message at the end and I doubt I'm alone.
Also: come visit the deep, dark woods. Nothing will "get" you. (Probably.)
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