Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.
Super Dark Times is a confidently made debut feature with exceptional cinematography — Kevin Phillips and cinematographer Eli Born craft a genuinely unsettling suburban-90s atmosphere, with cold, composed frames that amplify dread beautifully. The plot is a solid slow-burn thriller grounded in teen guilt and paranoia, though it loses momentum in its final act and the ending feels rushed and somewhat conventional, undermining the careful tension built throughout. The acting is naturalistic and credible, with the two leads conveying adolescent unease convincingly without breaking out into memorable performances. Novelty is decent — the film blends coming-of-age melancholy with psychological thriller effectively — but it treads familiar ground of suburban darkness explored by others, making it distinctive in execution rather than concept.