Mickey Keating’s (Pod, Carnage Park) new movie, Darling, is not your typical horror movie, and that is a fantastic thing. Filmed in austere black-and-white, with a jarring soundtrack, jolting subliminal flashes, and a magnetic performance by Lauren Ashley Carter as the title character, this movie is unnerving and disturbing in all the right ways.

Carter plays Darling, a young woman hired to house sit for Madame (Sean Young), who, before leaving, whispers “I shouldn’t tell you this…” then proceeds to (rather delightfully) tell Darling that the previous caretaker of the house met an untimely end by stepping off the balcony.

The fact that major characters get names like “Madame,” or “Darling,” and “The Man” just adds to the overall oddness and further serves to throw us off-balance.

As Darling settles in (after lugging her incredibly heavy suitcase upstairs–seriously, what’s in that thing?) she takes her time exploring the house, cautiously moving through rooms and along hallways as if she’s afraid she might break something. The loud, heavy, metronome ticking of the clock in the hallway provides a stifling, oppressive atmosphere you can cut with a knife.

Heh. Knife.

Carter’s wide-eyed face is equal parts innocent and nutzo, and it quickly devolves from there. Out walking one day, she encounters The Man (Brian Morvant), a rather nondescript fellow who triggers…something in her. She stalks him, watching from the street as he goes to work. She starts having nightmares about him, fast jump cuts of deranged faces that startled and disturbed me.

Alternating long, quiet takes with jump cuts and shocking sounds helps Keating ramp up the tension and keep us on edge. Darling invites The Man back to the house and, as things go from bad to worse (and, boy howdy, do they ever), we are caught in her spiral of dementia, helpless to do anything but watch and cringe and listen to the loud ticking of the clock in the hallway.

You could take The Shining, mix it with some Psycho, and maybe add a bit of Polanski’s The Tenant and come up with something like Darling. However,  Keating has created something wholly original, an artistic film that effortlessly drapes a growing sense of dread over the audience (along with some impressive gore). Carter, playing Darling, is a revelation, carrying this movie on her very capable shoulders. You really can’t take your eyes off of her, and if you do, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Uncle Mike sez: check it out, as soon as you can. In theaters April 1st, and the trailer is below.