The Devil's Footprints

Sometime during the night of February 8th and February 9th of 1855, residents of Devon, England woke up to find hoof-like prints in the snow traveling over 40 miles. The odd thing was the prints weren't from a horse or any known animal. They appeared to be from a standing, two-legged being. The other unusual thing was that the prints went right over any object in it's way. The prints were seen on rooftops and over the tops of haystacks.

Well, you can imagine the uneasiness that would create. The footprints were immediately attributed to the Devil. Several theories have been put forth to explain them, but kangaroos and hot-air balloons seem even more far-fetched than the devil to me. I'll leave you to read more about it at this wikipedia link.

It's an interesting phenomenon though, you must admit. That's probably why it became the central idea of a 2014 movie called Dark Was the Night.

As luck would have it, the movie is streaming on Netflix. Dark Was the Night, is set in current-day and takes place in a small community on the northern west coast. A logging company sets up camp in an previously wild area and unleashes havoc.

I won't say more than that about the plot.  I'll will say that I tend to be a wimp when it comes to horror films so I watched this on a snowy Saturday afternoon. This is a quiet movie filmed in somber grey. One thing I really liked was that though the characters were flawed they didn't fall into one dimensional stereotypes which so often happens in horror films. The acting was good too- there was no melodrama or over-acting. There were a few moments where I jumped or flinched, but overall it was more suspenseful than gory. You should watch it on a snowy evening if for nothing else than to mark the anniversary of the Devil's Footprints in Devon.

(One thing that did make me laugh was that in the first scene the logger foreman came on screen and I said to myself "Outside Dave!" The actor is Steve Agee and he has a recurring role on the tv show "New Girl." It just was so unexpected to see Outside Dave with a job.)