And Soon The Darkness (2010)

I never saw the original And Soon the Darkness, but maybe I will now.  I like watching different versions of movies and comparing them.  The original was British and had two girls on a biking trip in France.  This version has two American girls on a biking trip in Argentina.  You'll probably immediately think of Turistas, and although this has the same vibe, it doesn't really venture into the torture porn category.

The two female leads, Stephanie (Amber Heard) and Ellie (Odette Yustman/Annable) need their membership to the girls' club revoked forever.  I'm reminded of Final Girl's take on Frozen in the sense that these girls were assholes and horrible friends to each other, and maybe karma is coming to bite them right in the ass.  On Stephanie and Ellie's last night in Argentina, they go out of a bar and get quite tipsy.  Being a horrendous friend, Ellie traipses off to bang some Argentinian dude, leaving Stephanie to wander back to the hotel by herself.  The next day, they drag their hungover butts to go sightseeing, but begin fighting again and separate.   A real friend would never peace out on another no matter how mad you are, so both of these girls are just stupid.

While separated, one of the girls is kidnapped, and the other, who knows zero Spanish, is forced to go running around rural Argentina trying to find her friend.  She soon discovers that not only is her friend not the first American to be kidnapped, but there are very few people she can trust to help the both of them.

And Soon the Darkness was shot in Argentina and I found the cinematography to be beautiful.  No generic Canadian shots here.  Kudos to the location scout, who not only found beautiful wide expanses for the biking scenes, but also surreal creepy and deserted towns.  Stupid girls aside, I really liked this movie overall.  I love flicks that can achieve the feeling of "trapped-in-the-open" and extreme helplessness. 















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