A harrowing but meticulously observed look at teenage lives in the era prior to the Columbine High School massacre, SUPER DARK TIMES marks the feature debut of gifted director Kevin Phillips, whose critically acclaimed 2015 short film “Too Cool For School” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) are best friends growing up in a leafy Upstate New York suburb in the 1990s, where teenage life revolves around hanging out, looking for kicks, navigating first love and vying for popularity. When a traumatic incident drives a wedge between the previously inseparable pair, their youthful innocence abruptly vanishes. Each young man processes the tragedy in his own way, until circumstances grow increasingly complex and spiral into violence. Phillips dives headlong into the confusion of teenage life, creating an evocative atmosphere out of the murky boundaries between adolescence and adulthood, courage and fear, and good and evil.

Watching Kevin Phillips’ new film Super Dark Times has been one of my favorite film watching experiences this year. The film is one of the opening night films at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Set in the 1990s, Phillip has created a film that pays loving tribute to dark teenage coming-of-age films of the late 80s and early 90s, like Stand By Me. The feeling of exciting nostalgia is not all that dissimilar to Netflix’s Stranger Things. Watching this made me feel like a kid again and I found these teenagers to feel very relatable.

Right from the start, I was hooked in by the naturalistic and innocent conversation between these two best friends, Zach and Josh. They’re hanging out in Zach’s basement watching scrambled porn while they through their yearbook. Commenting on the appearances of their classmates, they especially focus on the girls they like. It’s clear they’ve been friends a long time. But when Zach mentions he’s spent time hanging out with Allison (Elizabeth Cappuccino,) the girl that Josh likes the most, for just a moment we a flash in Josh’s eyes of the darkness to come.

The main plot of the film focuses on the aftermath of a brutal and bloody accident that leaves another friend of their dead. In the woods, the friends decide to cover the body with leaves and hide the murder weapon. While Zach is wracked  with guilt, Josh seems to go into a sort of cocoon as that flash of darkness surrounds him. And before long, he reemerges as guy teetering on the edge of psychopathy. 

I have high praise the for the writing of Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski and the complexities of the characters and their relationships. Of particular note is the Allison story line. Allison is certainly a popular girl and in most film you would expect her to have zero interest in these two. However, here she is aware of how Josh feels about her but she likes Zach. Nothing in this film sets up the idea that he should feel lucky about this. Or that any little thing he does could mess this up and she would lose interest. No, here she genuinely likes him. Even when he seems a bit off and refuses to kiss her back when she tries to kiss him.  She decides his reluctance is simply due to the strain he and Josh appear to be going through.

Additionally, praise is due to the incredible makeup and effects in this low budget film. The gore in this film  is very effective and never gratuitous. It gave me a great feeling of discomfort. And by looking so realistic it added a tremendous weight to the rest of the movie.  

A well done effort all around, I really loved this film from start to finish.