Vague Visages’ Lovely, Dark, and Deep review contains minor spoilers. Teresa Sutherland’s 2023 movie on Amazon and Apple features Georgina Campbell, Nick Blood and Wai Ching Ho. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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Lovely, Dark, and Deep at once benefits and suffers from cinematic homages. In Arvores National Park, a traumatized forest ranger (Georgina Campbell as Lennon) begins a 90-day gig looking for missing hikers, only to retreat into the darkest corners of her mind. Writer-director Teresa Sutherland — who wrote for Mike Flanagan’s 2021 Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass — adopts the style of various horror auteurs, which in turn translates to a polished genre production featuring a high-concept script. Overall, though, Lovely, Dark, and Deep raises questions about first-time feature directors mimicking styles vs. establishing a unique cinematic identity.

Sutherland begins Lovely, Dark, and Deep with a telling quote from legendary American mountaineer John Muir: “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” The filmmaker’s impressive script keeps the audience guessing about Lennon’s background as the protagonist acknowledges rumors about her mental health while researching the bizarre disappearances of numerous hikers, but the narrative structure will presumably irritate casual moviegoers searching for easy answers. Sutherland builds atmosphere through slick montage editing (courtesy of Alexandra Amick) and hypnotic forest imagery via cinematographer Rui Poças, and yet the overall vibe — at least during the first act — feels like a mash-up of modern horror trends. Still, Lovely, Dark, and Deep teases a bright filmmaking future for Sutherland while spotlighting one of the horror genre’s most promising stars.

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The effectiveness of Lovely, Dark, and Deep’s visual design may depend on one’s familiarity with classic psychological horror films. Within the first three minutes, Sutherland includes an upside down forest visual, one that establishes the tone but also seems like it was lifted from the opening act of Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019). In addition, a background tree-climber visual (a slight jump scare) seemingly references the climax of Aster’s Hereditary (2018), a film that presumably influenced Sutherland’s gory images of rotting animals in Lovely, Dark, and Deep.

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So, even if Lovely, Dark, and Deep’s visual design works for viewers in general, it may be a bit too much for die-hard horror fans who will quickly recognize the filmmaker’s formula. Fortunately, Sutherland adds a variety of small cinematic flourishes that link the opening and final acts, such as characters humming and disorienting visuals that strengthen the protagonist’s backstory. Again, the writer-director produced a fantastic script that essentially boils down to an exploration of how traumatized people protect certain spaces.

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Lovely, Dark, and Deep is a fascinating study of performance and projection. As Lennon, Campbell taps into different moods as her character struggles to develop meaningful bonds with colleagues, such as Jackson (Nick Blood) and Zhang (Wai Ching Ho). In act one, she must play nice while listening to people gossip about her mental health. By the middle section, Lennon must remain focused on the work while trying to separate reality from fantasy. And as the final act begins, Campbell locks into the protagonist’s feelings of paranoia and ultimately submission, with cosmic horror consuming the character’s mind. Plus, Sutherland’s storytelling flows organically as Lennon spirals into a nightmare. Due to Campbell’s performances in Barbarian (2022), Bird Box: Barcelona (2023) and now Lovely, Dark, and Deep, she can expect plenty of offers from mainstream filmmakers.

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Sutherland’s feature debut is wonderfully ambitious. The director clearly respects her contemporaries and undoubtedly understands the fundamentals of efficient horror storytelling, but — in the future — hopefully she can step away from overt homages in favor of original, discombobulating filmmaking. Time is on Sutherland’s side.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep released digitally in February 2024 via XYZ Films.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

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