A Dark Song

Virtually a chamber piece with just two primary characters, the movie dives into the black arts with methodical restraint and escalating unease.

The two leads are resolute soldiers about it all, but they're dutifully edgy elements in a stylist's frame instead of fully realized characters living out what is supposed to be the riskiest time of their lives.

You have never seen a resolution like this one. You've never seen a film like this one.

One of the most unsettling horror movies of recent years. Scary and poignant.

With a cutting soundtrack and desaturated imagery, A Dark Song is a film that is gloomy, broody, but which offers little past masculine aggression and the spectacle of feminine suffering.

It's a strong debut from Gavin, who will be a talent to watch.

Utterly original and psychologically disquieting.

So dark that at times it is unbearable to watch.

The two central performances, Cathal Watters' claustrophobic lensing and Anna Maria O'Flanagan's trippy cuts ensure there's quite enough black magic.

Although Gavin makes us wait for the horror elements, they are highly effective once they arrive.

A Dark Song is uncomfortably atmospheric, a film that sucks the warmth from a room leaving you chilled and on edge. It is a dark, artful film set against an even darker canvass, and one that is worth seeking out from a director to watch.

The primary allure lies in the way Gavin keeps us guessing - is Walker imagining the increasingly creepy occurrences during her gruelling ordeal, has Oram stage-managed them or are they real?