It’s confusing that Bryan Bertino’s The Dark and the Wicked was not released in October, not just because it was a horror film for the Halloween season, but because it’s easily the scariest movie of 2020. The typical quote that comes from critics when a horror movie succeeds in the scare factor is, “it’s the scariest movie since The Exorcist”. That kind of statement looks good on the advertisements, but it will never be a true statement, because it’s impossible to replicate the lightning that William Friedkin made in The Exorcist. That still doesn’t mean a movie can’t come close and The Dark and the Wicked captures a chilling picture of death, terrorizing a Texas family, and the kind of stuff that haunts you in your sleep.
