A young woman has a wish and to fulfill it, she turns to Solomonic magic. It was not entirely clear to me what her aim was (she says something different a few times), but I do wonder how an inexperienced person would come up with a months-long (!!) ritual spending tens of thousands of dollars for a need. Would most people not just get one of these ‘magic in five minutes’ type books? Well, her son was killed by black magic, perhaps that is why.
We first see Sophia looking for a proper place which became a massive and remote mansion. Then she has to find an experienced magician who she finds in Joseph Solomon. The film soon plunges into the ritual itself.
What is not too common is that the magic is shown pretty much without prejudice, highlighting some of the concepts and ways of working and showing the amount of work and preparation needed. Then again, when the magic is supposed to be based on the magical books ascribed to Solomon and/or Abramelin then why not just use the imaginary that can be found in hundreds of freely available books and on the internet? Joseph’s books look like something wholly different and he even paints Chinese characters on Sophia’s body. Furthermore, Solomonic rituals can be extensive, but six to eight months and covering several rooms plus preparations?
That said, we follow Sophia and Joseph trying to work their way through their massive ritual which is built of smaller rituals and purifications. They argue and fight like a couple and the viewer is mostly left out of the magic. Towards the end the film does work towards that angle, but then it is fairly corny horror.
“A Dark Song” is to some extent interesting when we follow the two people preparing, performing and discussing the ritual. These parts are a bit too thin and other elements are just not good enough. The 6.1 on IMDb.com is not far off in my opinion. I would bring the average a bit down with my….:
