“Orion and the Dark” Review

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There is something to be said of how kids fear the darkness. It goes beyond the mere terror of a boogeyman under the bed or a monster in the closet. Simple scares befall young kids, but what about the older kids? Even after being partially disillusioned by the prospect of monsters, there is still much to be afraid of in the uncertainty of the unseen. It’s an aspect that is thankfully explored to some extent in Orion and the Dark, an animated adventure that does a bit more than personify fear in typical anthropomorphic fashion.

On the surface, this film could seem vapid in how it is initially staged. The fearful Orion (Jacob Tremblay) is terrified of everything. From the girl at school he has a crush on to the bully who constantly harasseses him, there’s anxiety coursing through every day of his young life. Even prospects of facing those fears carry their own level of worry, as when he contemplates punching the bully in the face and fears killing him by busting his nose and damaging the brain (“It’s true, look it up”). So he need some help with getting over these fears and the very being of Dark (Paul Walter Hauser) might be just what the doctor ordered.

Here’s where the film could falter. The familiar wheels start turning when Dark gives Orion that tour of daily duties, spreading nighttime across the globe. While guiding the kid, Dark introduces Orion to other personified night figures, including Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett), Sleep (Natasia Demetriou), Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), and Quiet (Aparna Nancherla). They all perform their duties while watching the opposite figure of Light (Ike Barinholtz) just behind them. As Orion starts talking to these figures, he tries to convince them that light can be just as comforting as dark. The contrast leads to Dark having an existential crisis and Orion being forced to recognize the balance of the unknown.

Where the film surprises and delights most is in how it is framed. The tale is told by an adult Orion (Colin Hanks) relaying the comfort-of-darkness story to his daughter, Hypatia (Mia Akemi Brown). Hypatia is not posed as a kid who only listens or interrupts when things get too adult. She’s as astute as Orion and starts questioning more of the mechanics of how this type of story would function. Rather than be flustered by these diversions, Orion is intrigued enough to let Hypatia take the wheel at several points in the narrative. While this loose method does lead to down some trippy Terry Gilliam style roads, there’s an earnest nature in the presentation.

This vibe gives off the impression that kids are intelligent with thoughts more adult than we may give them credit for. This is especially true with Orion, as an early monolog in the film has him contemplate what death is like. He arrives at the conclusion that it’s a nothing beyond darkness and silence. We still have darkness and silence when we’re alive, making Orion quiver at the thought of something even less than the loneliest parts of our lives. I recall being very young and contemplating how life would continue after I die and if there would ever be an end to all things. Those are existential questions the some kids may arrive at in their lives and this screenplay by Charlie Kaufman treats with a respectful amount of maturity and absurdity.

There’s a heartfelt level of earnestness in Orion and the Dark, favoring the facing of fears more complex than simple. There are a few moments where the film gets lost in the routine splendor of magical being making nightlife wondrous and silly, but they don’t hamper the overall spirit of controlling your own story. It’s hard to comment as an adult, but I imagine some of the kids watching will dig that they get to dictate more than listen. The best way to conquer your fears is to take hold of that untapped imagination, molding it into something more interesting than horrifying. That’s worth more than some ho-hum adventure of a kid blasting monsters of the dark with a fantasy spell. Kids deserve something more substantial than that tiresome diversion and that thoughtfulness does bubble up to the surface in what could’ve been a forgettable farce.