That's Dark Press Kit

THAT’S DARK
FORMAT OVERVIEW
CUTTING MOMENTS
THE MALE GAZE IN CINEMA
Danny, David and Pappy kick off That’s Dark with Douglas Buck’s Cutting Moments (1997). In the
series opener, they forget to do a plot summary, make their way through some psychoanalysis and
the male gaze while Danny spends half the episode denying and/or coming to terms with the truth
about this movie. Spending a considerable amount of energy on trying to understand the film’s
female perspective, they find themselves on the verge of being “Mindbucked.”
MARTYRS
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS ON SCREEN
In episode two, Danny watches a movie that’s been a long time coming – Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs
(2008). We start by compensating for last week’s plot summary faux-pas with a character sketch
and a plot summary that is almost certainly too long. We talk about a number of subjects,
including whether or not we’d mercy kill each other, PTSD and the basement beast. And after so
many attempts, Pappy finally watches Martyrs with Danny.
MURDER – SET – PIECES
THE VALUE OF SHOCK MIXED WITH A LITTE PSYCHOPATHY
David and Pappy try to turn up the heat on Danny, but they’re all left somewhat speechless after
watching Nick Palumbo’s Murder-Set-Pieces (2004) – for reasons they didn’t quite expect. They
introduce the 3 Minute Drill plot summary; the conversation covers different forms of shock value,
the role of empathy and they put the main character through a psychopath test. Hot Takes run
high on this one.
BREAKING HER WILL
THE PANOPTICON
Hand-picked by Danny, the boys watch Bill Zebub’s Breaking Her Will (2009). David makes
interesting claims about the effectiveness of torture scenes. Danny seems to defend the trained
talents of Bill Zebub’s actors. And Pappy leads a discussion on the panopticon. An important term
is coined that appears in the rest of the season, and Danny, David and Pappy are tested to come up
with their own awesome director pseudonym.
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