7/10
Decent old-school UK thriller
19 January 2012
Even though I have not seen 'And Soon the Darkness' before, it still brings on a sentimental feeling to me. It's not at all a sentimental movie but it is the slow pace, the suspense ánd the music composed by Laurie Johnson (The Avengers) that give me sort of a déjà-vu feeling.

The story is not a complex one. It's about two women going for a cycling holiday in France. They get an argument and decide to split up for the moment. One of them then disappears, and the other goes looking for her.

Though AStD reminds me of (the original Dutch) 'The Vanishing', unfortunately the plot doesn't have that strength. Still, it's a decent thriller and a mystery until the very end. It is slow, but has enough moments to keep it going. The French spoken bits are not translated which makes us much relate to Jane. Pretty much all characters have their weirdness, but always within limits. This makes sure that it is all a believable scenario. The story is one that could easily happen, it is never outside of the feeling of reality. And that is what gives it it's fairly creepy atmosphere. What would you do in Jane's place?

AStD is a movie which you could easily find boring. There is not much real action, but in a way, that is a good thing. It's a movie you should place and value within it's time. I've read that there was a remake made in 2010, and though I haven't watched it, what I read about it is that it is made more towards this age, with scenes of torture. There is nothing of such kind in the original one, and though I can appreciate and deal with highly violent movies, it is just not what AStD needs. Instead; it is the lack of it which is a good thing, as it all comes down to good fashioned strong suspense. It leaves more to your imagination. Suspense is something the British were very good at in the 70's, and though there are better UK suspense movies, AStD is certainly not the worst.

They just don't make 'm like this anymore.
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