As I begin to type this I can't help but mention that it's kind of hard to identify solid examples (in movies at least) of successful use of dark matter. Because, after all, the reveal is a big moment in most monster movies, or horror movies so it goes without saying that at some point you're going to get to see what's been pissing Sigourney Weaver off so much.
Now of course you have many examples of certain things happening off stage or screen in order to utilize the macabre imaginations of it's audience instead of telegraphing each (usually gory) detail. Commonly referred to as 'implied violence' the examples are many, with the most famous probably being this one...
But what about a central plot or character dwelling in the dark matter? Picks are a bit slimmer but there was one movie that popped in to my mind. In many ways the whole production was an experiment in dark matter, in as much as what was not revealed made the entire experience more rewarding and terrifying for the audience. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The Blair Witch Project. The movie that made camping scary again! In many ways this movie was a vanguard experience both for low budget guerilla film making, but also the power of the non-reveal. Firstly, they advertised the whole movie as if it was authentic found footage. They created bogus news articles, listed cast members as deceased, conducted bogus interviews with bogus locals, made bogus websites about the legend of this wetch (correct spelling) in the forest and basically trolled an entire country leading up to it's release. The dark matter here was of course that it was just a low budget horror film- but this was 1999. Simpler times, simpler times.
Doubling down on this notion of dark matter and the power of the non-reveal, the film makers decided to never actually show the actual witch. As explained by the director: "What makes us fearful is something that's out of the ordinary, unexplained. The first ending kept the audience off balance; it challenged our real world conventions and that's what really made it scary."
Now of course you have many examples of certain things happening off stage or screen in order to utilize the macabre imaginations of it's audience instead of telegraphing each (usually gory) detail. Commonly referred to as 'implied violence' the examples are many, with the most famous probably being this one...
But what about a central plot or character dwelling in the dark matter? Picks are a bit slimmer but there was one movie that popped in to my mind. In many ways the whole production was an experiment in dark matter, in as much as what was not revealed made the entire experience more rewarding and terrifying for the audience. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The Blair Witch Project. The movie that made camping scary again! In many ways this movie was a vanguard experience both for low budget guerilla film making, but also the power of the non-reveal. Firstly, they advertised the whole movie as if it was authentic found footage. They created bogus news articles, listed cast members as deceased, conducted bogus interviews with bogus locals, made bogus websites about the legend of this wetch (correct spelling) in the forest and basically trolled an entire country leading up to it's release. The dark matter here was of course that it was just a low budget horror film- but this was 1999. Simpler times, simpler times.
Doubling down on this notion of dark matter and the power of the non-reveal, the film makers decided to never actually show the actual witch. As explained by the director: "What makes us fearful is something that's out of the ordinary, unexplained. The first ending kept the audience off balance; it challenged our real world conventions and that's what really made it scary."
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