How Far Does The Dark Go?: Film Review

How Far Does The Dark Go? is a lifeless vampire tale that bites off more than it can chew and suffers from stiff acting and messy editing.

Unfortunately, what we get is a movie that’s so awkward in execution, so forced in performance, that it struggles to deliver even the most basic pleasures of vampire storytelling.

The opening scene is the high point. It’s gory and genuinely intriguing: a blood-covered woman (Evienne) gently comforts a crying baby as we realize the child’s mother lies dead just out of frame. The moment is heightened by clever, 80s-style visual choices, a bold splash of blood leading into stark white title cards, and for a moment, you might think you’re in good hands. But almost immediately after, the film begins to fall apart, and it rarely recovers.

Grace (Anna Hindman), our protagonist, is introduced as a broken woman, a nurse numbing herself with morphine, drifting through life without much reason to care. When she’s abducted by the mysterious and centuries-old Evienne (Chloe Carroll) and brought deep into Philadelphia’s abandoned subway tunnels, the film teases a twisted Stockholm Syndrome romance. But any potential for chemistry between the leads fizzles almost instantly. The dialogue is stiff, like it was written by an alien imitating what it thinks is human conversation without fully grasping it. Every exchange feels hollow and rehearsed, and worse, completely devoid of natural rhythm. Hindman’s performance is wooden, but it’s hard to blame her entirely; her character is given so little to do besides react to scenes that feel like clunky table reads.

The idea that Grace and Evienne could bond over their shared care for Henry (Robert Picardo), Evienne’s dying son, is compelling on paper. But the film doesn’t develop this dynamic with any real care. Instead, it rushes through emotional beats and forces its central relationship through sheer narrative insistence rather than actual development. You’re told Grace is falling under Evienne’s spell, but you never feel it.

Meanwhile, subplots pile on with little payoff. Evienne’s ex, Tempest (Sam Rothermel), is a vampire scorned, back for vengeance and blood, but her motivations and impact on the story are too loosely drawn to matter. Dayanara (Telita Perry), the vampire slayer, is a potentially interesting counterbalance to Grace, but she barely registers. What should be a tense, fun, dangerous triangle of desire, addiction, and morality becomes a chaotic mess of undercooked ideas and missed opportunities.

And then there’s the editing. It’s not just choppy, it’s jarring. Scenes frequently cut at the wrong moment, or linger in strange ways, yanking you out of the narrative. Conversations switch angles so rapidly that it feels like a mistake, not a stylistic choice. Add to that a soundtrack that cues in awkwardly, often at the exact wrong moment, and the film begins to feel like it’s actively working against itself.

To be fair, there’s ambition here. Writer-director-editor Bears Rebecca Fonté clearly has a specific vision: a moody vampire tale about codependency, addiction, and the seductive pull of power. And part of me wants to believe the clumsy dialogue, strange tone, and awkward direction were meant to be campy, that this is all a stylistic swing. But even if that’s the case, it doesn’t land. The film isn’t funny enough to be camp, nor emotionally grounded enough to function as drama. It just floats in a strange limbo, too earnest to laugh at, too stilted to take seriously.

By the end, Grace’s arc, whether she’ll succumb to the darkness or cling to some semblance of her humanity, should be the emotional anchor. But the film never earns that weight. Even the climactic pleas from Henry, who begs her not to become a monster like his mother, fall flat. The audience hasn’t been given enough reason to care about any of them.

How Far Does The Dark Go? had its World Premiere at Queer Screams Film Festival on August 2, 2025.