A group of women on a healing retreat confront the monsters of the past in Dark Nature. Still traumatized after escaping an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Derek (Daniel Arnold), Joy (Hannah Anderson) is convinced by her friend Carmen (Madison Walsh) to go on a retreat for trauma survivors led by Dr. Carol Dunnley (Kyra Harper). Joined by Tara (Helen Belay) and Shaina (Roseanne Supernault), Joy and Carmen are led by Dr. Dunnley to an isolated area of the Rocky Mountains, where they are to confront the monsters of their past.
Dark Nature is a wilderness survival horror film written and directed by Berkley Brady. The film’s plot focuses on the abuse survivor Joy, who is, six months later, still traumatized by her relationship with Derek. Joining her friend Carmen on a healing retreat, Joy hopes to recover from her traumas finally. However, as Dr. Dunnley leads them into an uncharted area of the Rocky Mountains, they encounter something that physically causes these traumas to manifest.
Despite an opening prologue that can be triggering and upsetting for some, Dark Nature is a pretty solid wilderness survival horror film, which ends up having many similarities to Neal Marshall’s The Descent. I don’t want to get too specific about the film’s threat, but there is something in this wilderness that causes these trauma survivors to confront the monsters of their past literally. This helps to make Dark Nature heavy on metaphor while also being a thrilling survival horror film.
