Hold the Dark

A not-so-action thriller but heavily twisted, mysterious, and filled with ambiguousness— that’s what I can tell about the movie Hold the Dark (2018). Set out in a snow-covered remote area where wolves reign, the movie is hard to swallow and might choke you to death if you have difficulties unearthing metaphors. To me, the story seemed to be perplexed, somewhat fragmented, and violent— although there is no such scene until the last quarter of the movie, still, the news about killing one’s own son and then hiding it in the room gives me a goosebump.

I usually don’t talk about the plot when writing about a movie, but this time I think it’s legitimate to do so. So, there is this wolf hunter cum specialist who is summoned to track down a wolf pack that is considered responsible for hunting a few children from the locality, including the only son of our heroine Medora. Upon reaching the valley, the wolf hunter Core detects a wolf pack and one day finds a wolf pup being eaten by the pack, which he considers normal when things are adverse for the pack. The story moves through the snow-packed wilderness, and sometimes, the mysterious behaviour of Medora, whose husband is away in a war in Iraq, gives the plot a dose of twist— including wearing a wolf mask, forcing Core to strangle her unexpectedly and unnecessarily. Soon enough, Core finds out the son was not taken away by the wolf pack, but the mother killed him, and the mystery begins to unfold. Can this be explained by the behaviour of the wolves; killing to establish order or evade adversity? If that’s so, what adversities were occupying the mother to kill her only son? To bring her husband back from the war she misses so much, or is there something else?

Anyway, the husband returns and is now on his way to hunt down his wife for killing his son. He and his friends kill a few cops in the process, and later, his friends carry out a big massacre in an attempt to distract the cops and buy some time for him to find his wife out, which he does and after a little “drama,” they had an intimate time in the wilderness— I never thought this might happen, especially when the husband is raged like hell. Well, the sensuous event helped them reconcile, and they took their son’s dead body and dragged it into the forest nearby— the end!

Now, I had to take the help of online critics to understand what just happened and find out they are husband-wife cum siblings— an incestuous relationship it is. And it is backed by the claim of Medora, who mentioned that she never met her husband but always knew him. Then again, a family photo implies they are indeed siblings. So, the death of their son can be explained as the killing of an unnatural thing? Perhaps.

Also, the involvement of wolves and their habits throughout the movie might have influenced the characters. They are shown to be adopting the behaviour of the wolf packs, who kill the weakest member of the pack to keep it tight and strong. Also, they do it to survive in the harsh wild. Probably, the husband changed his mind about killing his wife for the same reason, for that his wife has cleansed off their sin and set things right— I don’t know, but the title of the movie seems to be justified with the whole imagery and twisting plot. Cause, the ending didn’t reveal anything; instead, it darkened the whole story even further.