As the title implies, “Never After Dark” is a horror film that isn’t stuck in the shadows. Sometimes modern movies can be so extremely dark that there’s something that feels less satisfying about that. I’m not as interested in realistic-looking light as I am in light that’s evocative and dramatic.” The film, which opens in theaters on Friday via Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing, is about a medium named Airi (Moeka Hoshi) who is tasked with exorcising a house with more darkness than she’s ever experienced.
Any more details ruin surprises, which are integral for Boyle’s engagement in the project. I was also interested, in a visual, nonexpository way, in coming up with a new belief system that they could show on screen, the tools and processes and beliefs that underpin it, all being something that was new and things that you wouldn’t necessarily explain out loud.” Ultimately, Boyle wanted the answers he delivered to hit hard. We’ve all seen a medium arriving at a house that’s haunted and getting the walk-through and sitting down to work,” he says.
It’s like feeling your way through it. I like the feeling of being a little lost. It was fun to calibrate that every step of the way.” One element that also gives the film a unique energy is the American-born Boyle filming it in Japan with local talent speaking Japanese.
Boyle’s reverence for the culture came when, on a Mormon mission at 19, he moved to Sydney, Australia and was assigned to learn the language. So I tried to have a certain amount of humility about things and proactively ask for everybody’s opinion and make sure that what I was doing felt natural and right. This project was a continuation of that.
Kento Kaku is my primary creative partner on both the Netflix show and this. We get in the script together and talk through every line and make sure that what I’m trying to say is getting through and feels authentic in every respect. So there are a lot of long sessions of Kento and me going through it together with a red pen and making sure it felt right.” Ultimately, Boyle believes his work in “Dark” comes from a lineage of filmmakers not working in their native tongue.
There’s so many examples — people do it every day,” he says. The experience, though, has definitely given me a greater appreciation for people who made the great American classics and were doing it in their second language.” Watch the trailer for “Never After Dark” below.
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