This little-seen obscurity is a great piece of low budget psychological horror melodrama that is crammed full of strange subtexts and subtle allegories about the power of women. Siobhan McKenna plays Emily, a young woman from a small Irish community, who is loathed by the women of her village. The reason for their enmity is unclear but seems to revolve around Emily's powerful effect on men. Their loathing is so strong that they persuade the local priest to get rid of Emily and send her to England. In England she get work with the Tallent family on their farm but it isn't long before Bess (Anne Crawford), the older of the Tallent sisters is concluding that there is something very wrong with Emily. When young men begin to die horribly Bess's suspicion and antipathy to Emily begin to grow.
This is a strangely powerful film made all the better by the level of ambiguity and the multiple themes running through the narrative. Is Siobhan a serial killer; a homicidal nymphomaniac or is she something more supernatural, a physical manifestation of the repressed id, a succubus or some form of vampire? We never see her kill, but her first victim is a powerful fairground heavyweight boxer and the second a strapping young fisherman. It is difficult to see how the rather slight Emily could overpower these two big strong men without some form of supernatural agency. Max Catto, who wrote the script from his own play, and director Lance Comfort cleverly avoid spelling things out which gives their film a real air of mystery.
There is also plenty of subtext at play throughout the film with some elements presented more subtly than others. The narrow mindedness and innate conservatism of small, isolated communities and the Freudian concern about unconscious desires overpowering the conscious personality are played-out with real wit. As are issues of class dynamics and servility played out between the posh, well-to-do Tallent family and their working class staff, personified in the struggle between Bess and Emily. The febrile fear of women's burgeoning sexual allure and power is also a constant throughout the film, as is the need for it to be tamed and for women to be put back into their "place". Interestingly it is the women who fear Emily and her strange power over men the most - from the matrons in her Irish home village to Bess at her new home all seek to repress and destroy that power.
Technically Lance Comfort's direction is very good. He keeps the film ambiguous and disorientating, alternating between ominous deep shadows and traditional ghost story effects and brightly lit pastoral scenes that conjure up images of a rural idyll. The whole film has a well-honed Gothic sensibility with an ancient house, church organs playing in the middle of the night and religious imagery all portrayed in stark monochrome photography against sharp, jutting set dressing and plenty of clever, disorientating camera angles.
Siobahn Mckenna dominates proceedings giving an intense performance ranging from the innocent and naïve through to the dark and chilling. Cleverly we never know whether Emily understands her own power or whether the antipathy of women towards her are a horrible mystery. It is these small mysteries that make "Daughter od Darkness" such a subtle and ambiguous little film and an unexpected treat. ( )