The Dark and the Wicked

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Bryan Bertino directs. Tristan Nyby behind the camera. Tom Schraeder scores. William Boodell cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 6 years ago.
• 2Directed by Bryan Bertino, shot by Tristan Nyby. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Tom Schraeder. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor William Boodell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Marin Ireland and Michael Abbott Jr. and Xander Berkeley carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "She told you not to come".
• 7IMDB entry: tt10229558 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Classified under 11 themes, including "suicide", "texas", "haunting", "possession".

The technical file

Cinematography

Tristan Nyby

Original score

Tom Schraeder

Editing

William Boodell

Production design

Scott Colquitt

Costume design

Elizabeth Trott

Makeup / hair

Tara Brawley

Sound

Christopher Duke

Runtime

95 min · 1h 35m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Box office

$736,153

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

The Dark and the Wicked (2020) ↗

Also by

Bryan Bertino

• 
  The Strangers

  2008 · ★ 6.1
• 
  Vicious

  2025 · ★ 6.0
• 
  The Monster

  2016 · ★ 5.5
• 
  Mockingbird

  2014 · ★ 4.7

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Fantasia 2020 Live Q&A

  Featurette
• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Repo Jack2020-11-09
  ★ 5/10

  I was excited to see Bryan Bertino's latest offering. "The Strangers" was an interesting classic introducing masked home invaders in the most unsettling of ways. "The Monster" was a better-than-expected as an estranged mother and daughter are stranded in their car in the woods while being stalked by a monster. "Wicked's" Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic score was a solid (90%/72) and user reviews were ok (3.2 on IMDB). But for me, it fell completely flat as I kept waiting for something to connect the disparate disturbing scenes and story-line together. Many movies try to tease the viewer with unreliable narrators, leaving them to ponder whether what is happening is supernatural or all in the characters head. "The Babadook," "Black Swan," and "The Lighthouse" are examples of movies that do this right. Unfortunately, this doesn't. It's clearly something supernatural that is haunting everybody but beyond some gory and violent scenes (all of which are well done), the movie is just too ambiguous in a very frustrating way.

  Read full review ↓
• Repo Jack2020-11-09
  ★ 5/10

  I was excited to check out Bryan Bertino's latest offering, "The Dark and the WIcked." His debut, "The Strangers," was an instant classic introducing masked home invaders in the most unsettling of ways. His followup, "The Monster," was well-crafted as an estranged mother and daughter get stranded in their car in the woods while being stalked by a monster. It was ultimately disappointing as there was nothing to connect the disparate creepy happenings to the story-line. Many movies try to tease the viewer with unreliable narrators, leaving them to ponder whether what is happening is supernatural or all in the characters head. "The Babadook," "Black Swan," and "The Lighthouse" are examples of movies that do this right. Unfortunately, this doesn't. It's clearly something supernatural haunting everybody, but beyond some disturbing and/or violent scenes (all of which are well done), the movie is just too ambiguous in a very frustrating way.

  Read full review ↓
• SWITCH.2020-11-18
  ★ 8/10

  The scariest new film that I've seen in 2020, 'The Dark and the Wicked' is well-crafted, moodily evocative, and best watched through one's fingers. - Jake Watt Read Jake's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-the-dark-and-the-wicked-2020s-scariest-film

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• TR

  Travelling Picture Show Company

  US

• 

  Unbroken Pictures

  US

• SH

  Shotgun Shack Pictures

• IN

  Inwood Road Films

  US

Key crew

• Second Assistant CameraMarques Mallare
• Assistant EditorChristine Copeland
• Drone OperatorJoe Doran
• Digital Intermediate ProducerBecky McNeal
• Concept ArtistPaul Gerrard
• Key Makeup ArtistTara Brawley
• Special Effects Makeup ArtistTara Brawley
• Set DresserReid Sullivan
• Makeup & Hair AssistantEmily Istre
• Drone OperatorRobert Ables
• Script SupervisorEve Butterly
• ColoristRyan K. McNeal
• Key GripJosh Elam
• GafferJesse Curl
• First Assistant CameraDeangelo Harding
• Set DresserPhillip Rios
• Digital Imaging TechnicianCydney Cox
• Production AssistantDoug Vanbenthuysen
• Additional Production AssistantMauricio Vanbenthuysen
• On Set PropsPhil Rios
• 3D ArtistSergey Mihaylov
• Production AssistantJonathan Trott
• Animal CoordinatorJason Owen
• Production AssistantNicholas Fernandez

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• suicide
• texas
• haunting
• possession
• grief
• priest
• isolated farmhouse
• goats
• severed finger
• brother sister relationship
• rural

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2020-04-16· Tribeca Film Festival
• Premiere2020-10-06· Beyond Fest
• Premiere2020-10-14· Chicago International Film Festival
• Theatrical (limited)2020-11-06NR
• Digital2020-11-06

Also known as

International titles

• เฮี้ยน หลอน ซ่อนวิญญาณTH