Hold the Dark (2018)

A writer studying wolf behavior is drawn into a chilling mystery in a remote Alaskan village where a mother seeks to hunt down the predators blamed for her son's disappearance.

First release year

2018

Runtime (minutes)

125

Production countries

United States

Original languages

English

Directors

Jeremy Saulnier

Writers

Macon Blair · screenplay

Cast and characters

Jeffrey Wright; Alexander Skarsgård; James Badge Dale; Riley Keough; Julian Black Antelope; Tantoo Cardinal

Genres

action thriller; neo-Western

Themes

wolf behavior; possession; war; grief

Tone and mood

unsettling

Setting

Keelut, Alaska

Premise and plot tags

neo-Western; action thriller; wolf-demon; mystery

Source material / true-story basis

novel of the same name by William Giraldi

Content notes

incest

Reception

Hold the Dark received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported approval rating based on reviews, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus states, "Hold the Darks unsettling aesthetic offers more of what filmgoers expect from director Jeremy Saulnier — and is often enough to prop up shaky narrative underpinnings." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 63 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Reported review scores

Metacritic · score: 63 · scale: 100 · review count: 26

Production trivia

Filming took place in and around the areas surrounding Calgary, Drumheller and Kananaskis Country, Alberta, which were used to substitute for Alaska.

Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.

Your lists

Loading your lists…