2025 Popcorn Frights Film Festival Coverage
Carry the Darkness review
The satanic panic of the 90s threatens to claim another victim.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Carry the Darkness
Directed by Douglas Forrester
Written by Douglas Forrester
Starring Joel Meyers and Helen Laser
Carry the Darkness Review
Satanic Panic is an idea that has been around about as long as I have. Formally, anyway. The concept probably dates back as long as humans have had beliefs. But it became a known thing in my lifetime. Basically, whenever something terrible happens some people like to blame abstract ideas instead of facing the truth. Like how the “video games cause violence” routine is trotted out after a school shooting while the government relaxes more gun laws. The kind of straw man bullshit argument that exists to turn people against each other instead of uniting against the problem. Satanic Panic has been used to target the way people dress…the kind of music they listen to…what they do or don’t believe in…things that are easy to rally clapping seals to hate while selling their safety down the river behind their ignorant backs.
One of the most famous examples of this is the story of the West Memphis Three. Carry the Darkness clearly takes its inspiration from the case. It isn’t a direct telling of the crime and dubious investigation that followed, however. In fact, it uses what we already know about how Satanic Panic works in real life to tell a more interesting story. What if there was genuine demonic activity and an unexplainable phenomenon to blame for a horrific event? Not from the people that will have the fingers of injustice pointed at them, of course. Will the supposed cause of the initial outrage outweigh the true hatred behind it?
Carry the Darkness wastes no time telling us that the deadly events are being perpetrated by an entity of some sort. It’s not trying to be a murder mystery. We know that Travis (Joel Meyers) is innocent even though he’s an outcast who wears black and listens to death metal. Being on his side is the point. In fact, there wouldn’t be much purpose in pretending otherwise. We should be decades past the delusion that people who enjoy things viewed as “dark” by the general public are inherently evil people. People who are capable of heinous crimes.
That simple concept is lost on the people in Carry the Darkness, of course. Set in the early 90s, Travis’s taste in music and reputation as a quiet, detached youth make him an easy target when the town finds itself in need of one. Carry the Darkness uses the Satanic Panic of the period as a starting point…not the purpose. It even touches on the larger point that a small town pushing away a person based on their look and/or hobbies causes them to feel alone and cast off in the first place. One of the very attributes used to blame them when someone needs blaming.
The entity that is actually to blame for what’s plaguing the town is light on description in Carry the Darkness. We see what it can do…but answers to exactly what or why it’s doing it aren’t as forthcoming. It doesn’t matter that much…it serves as a narrative device more than the A-plot of the story. But it would have been nice to see it a bit more fleshed out.
Travis’s story is what drives Carry the Darkness. We get to see his relationship with his mother, a budding relationship with a new girl in his life and, most importantly, how quickly a town and its authorities will turn on someone just for being who they are. Joel Meyers is excellent in the lead role. You can feel Travis’s isolation…but you can also understand it. Travis becomes the unexpected lead investigator into what’s happening in his town…because the people who should be doing it are busy investigating him. The movie does allow one member of the investigation to have an open mind…eventually being drawn towards clues others are too narrow minded to see. It’s a nice idea…allowing the events of Carry the Darkness to be viewed through a different perspective.
Perspective is arguably Carry the Darkness’s greatest strength. It effortlessly puts us back in the early 90s through its impeccable production design. It puts us in the shoes of an outcast shouldering the blame for something bigger through an excellent lead performance. Most importantly, Carry the Darkness starts from a place that treats viewers as smarter than the people who fall into these Satanic Panic traps. I could see a way this story is told that paints it as a rote mystery whose big reveal is that *gasp* liking metal music doesn’t make you the bad guy. It would be a far less interesting version than Carry the Darkness offers up.
Scare Value
By treating its subject (and viewer) with respect, Carry the Darkness delivers an engaging take on the Satanic Panic of a specific era. It lovingly recreates the 90s while delving into a dark narrative purpose that utilizes the time period. Taking an interesting angle on the whole Satanic Panic idea elevates the film above expectations…a standout lead performance carries it even further. It also goes off the rails into unexplainable territory…but that’s part of what makes it work so well.
