Darkness in Tenement 45: Good Premise and Performances Sunk by Weak Execution

By Thom Ernst

Rating: C-

There is an intriguing premise in writer/director Nicole Groton’s story about an array of characters struggling under the guise of civil order to survive in a broken-down tenement while the world outside crumbles. But Darkness in Tenement 45 plays in tones so bleak that it collapses under the weight of its imposed importance. Too bad, because buried beneath the rubble, is a cast that outshines the material at every turn.

The film pivots around 16-year-old Joanna (Nicole Tompkins), who suffers from a darkness said to cause violent outbursts. There is little to attribute whether there is any paranormal authenticity to the darkness, a form of a mental illness, or merely a misdiagnosed case of pubescent angst.

Joanna goes to her Aunt Martha’s (Casey Kramer), who is deemed best suited to deal with such things as other’s misbehaviors. But, when rumours of a chemical attack force people to seal themselves inside, Joanna’s brief stay turns into months.

The Darkness begins several weeks into the lockdown. The tenants have settled into their predicament with guarded acceptance. But without outside contact, there is no way to validate the extent of the chemical threat. Do they risk contamination by going outside, or play it safe and remain hunkered down even while food supplies dwindle?

Sound familiar? But, if Darkness in Tenement 45 chances on a timely resemblance to our current pandemic, it comes at the risk of exhausting our patience. Is there a need for art to reflect a disturbing reality when the reality is already disturbing?

But timing isn’t the only thing working against Groton’s film.

Despite settings that appear authentic to that of a rundown tenement plus a sizeable cross-section of characters, Darkness in Tenement 45 feels strangely untextured and emotionless.

And Groton fails to utilize fully the gift of the performances she gets from the cast.

Among the best is Kramer. Her performance as Aunt Martha, the self-appointed charge of sequestered residents in a New York tenement, is riveting. As Martha, Kramer upholds a staunch commitment to the group with a virtue that is disturbingly self-serving. She offers supporting glances to Joanna, then unfairly scolds her moments later. But Martha’s overtly controlled manner is fragile and ready to burst at any moment, taking everyone with her.

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Martha’s stern, measured demeanor and an unmoving commitment to her misguided version of reality should send shivers along our spines. But Groton pulls back whenever things might have any real chance to take hold and become unnerving. If the argument is that Groton trusts the audience’s ability to intuit an impending doom, then she has miscalculated her trust by her omitting the appropriate cues.

Groton’s singular note characters operate on motivations that seem to exist solely in the director’s mind. And some of her observations—particularly a young boy with an unhealthy interest in the physical development of his older sister—are difficult to categorize: Is his fascination an unfortunate result of being sequestered, or is this an expression of budding perversion? Are his frequent trips into the closet with a catalog of women posing in underwear an innocent rite of passage, or is he acting on a harmful impulse?

Darkness stakes claim as a thriller and a horror. It isn’t. And though its theme of confinement and societal breakdown is comparable to genre types like The Mist (2007), 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), and to some extent, Night of the Living Dead (1968), there is little in Darkness that’s thrilling, and even less that’s horrifying.

Of course, its horrors needn’t be explicitly pronounced to achieve an unsettling tension. But the film tends to forsake tension all together. Not even the prospect of residents choosing between chemical exposure or eating moldy food and making meals out of cockroaches can elicit more than an ick reaction.

Opening newsreel footage featuring President Harry Truman sets the action around the Cold War, 1947. But inside the tenement, the setting could reflect anytime, anywhere. Time is vague enough to justify a third act twist; an unexpected reveal that the characters have been living on Mars this whole time. (Spoiler alert: they’re not, but it would account for the film’s complete lack of atmosphere.)

Much of the films more intense moments are in the final scene. Before that, the movie survives on the promise that something will happen. But even when the stakes are high, Darkness in Tenement 45 remains a dry and staid experience

Darkness in Tenement 45. Directed by Nicole Groton. Starring Nicole Tompkins and Casey Kramer. Available on digital and VOD platforms beginning November 3.