Torture Porn was a ridiculous title to saddle upon horror and thriller movies that focus on people being held captive and subjected to grotesque violence. Yet somehow, once upon a time, they were a hot commodity. In 2022, they have become something of a curate’s egg – an occasional piece in the canon of crime, thriller and horror cinema. It becomes a hard sell then with Keene McRae’s feature debut falling into this tired, near-irrelevant sub-genre. Yet, one of the twists employed here is that Shot in the Dark is based-on-a-true-story – as much as a film can be, at least.
Nonetheless, this is only Torture Porn on paper because, in actuality, torture is not a core trait here. A far from complimentary term became common parlance for horror made in the mumblecore register. Handheld, improvisational, small-scale drama as horror became mumblegore – and this is a textbook mumblegore film.
Kristoffer McMillan is William Langston. He was once a writer with all the potential in the world. Unfortunately, as the film opens, he is a depressed 20-something who alienated himself from his friends and his career after a traumatic event two years ago. Elsewhere in this fractured, dead-end small town is a serial killer who leaves a trail of severed limbs as a calling card. Early in this spry 80-minute film, William becomes the latest captive. His fate becomes apparent when the killer brutally dispatches a fellow victim in front of him with an axe (the camera sees him violently throwing his axe around, but no gore or contact is shown).
Credit where it’s due, [it] never succumbs to the worst mumblecore extravagances. McRae and co have incorporated interesting motifs, tastefully erratic editing that suggests an unreliable narrator and wistful cinematography that hints towards the death of small-town America
As the genre label implies (either torture porn or mumblegore), violence is key to the DNA. The violence in Shot in the Dark is minimal, contained to PTSD-style posthumous flashes of that initial meeting, a slashy moment with his Achilles tendon and a few escape attempts. That is good news for the squeamish. Perhaps bad news for the film then, as this isn’t the sort of film that those put off by violence will track down. Instead of plumbing to depraved depths that ask what one person can do to another, Writers Kristoffer McMillan, Keene McRae & Lane Thomas place much of the dramatic momentum in flashbacks. They tell the tale of how William’s relationship fell apart to such a degree that he became so anti-social and an easy target for the sociopathic stop-watch-obsessed killer. These non-linear snapshots illustrate a loving couple falling in and out of love. It is true, well-written, strong characterisation in horror is vital – however, these scenes are languorous and test the patience, perhaps more than grotesque violence would for the target audience.
Genres come and go. The only way a style or type of story retains its relevance is to play with the formula: Shot in the Dark and Keene McRae do this. The ‘how’ may not be so clear-cut. At its peak, Mumblecore enraptured audiences by exhibiting an admirable hustle in making films embued with a reality ingrained in their improvisational tone. However, to others, they were intolerable – hamstrung by their unadventurous micro-budget corner-cutting techniques. Credit where it’s due, Shot in the Dark never succumbs to the worst mumblecore extravagances. McRae and co have incorporated interesting motifs, tastefully erratic editing that suggests an unreliable narrator and wistful cinematography that hints towards the death of small-town America – it is also well-acted across the board. Yet, in spreading itself across two wildly opposing styles – one maximalist and the other minimalist – it’s hard to establish who will get the most from this micro-indie chiller.
Shot In The Dark is now available on UK digital platforms, courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films
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SHOT IN THE DARK (2021)
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