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Get your own Free Home PageWhich is not to say that DARK CURRENTS is heading straight to the Emmys. Its debt to David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS is blatant, from plot to overarching world view. And the acting, sound and continuity leave no doubt that this is an amateur, volunteer creation.
But that's part of the appeal. It makes DARK CURRENTS funny (it's also funny by design) and more important, it speaks to credibility. Where suspension of disbelief falls short, identification with settings and participants kicks in. One can imagine oneself behind Knight's viewfinder and getting the same satisfaction from it that he, Welch and their cast of half a dozen or so friends obviously are.
The very best thing about DARK CURRENTS is that it's so Maine. The locations look familiar: The signature image is of a river in early spring, a flood of rough black water. There's a lot of empty land and a lot of apparent poverty or outright desolation. The voices are real Maine, an accent Hollywood's big bucks just can't buy.
And the plot seems almost intrinsic to the stark fields and black water. It revolves around parents mysteriously dead, or mysteriously evil, and their grown kids trying to solve the mysteries. Behind it all is the cold bored frustation that's like a sibling to young people in so much of Maine. If drugs and violence figure in, that's Maine too. And so are the occult touches; as Knight says, "There's a general spookiness up here."
For now, DC is "a labor of love that I'd like to turn into a money-making thing," says Knight. The third episode has been shot, half a dozen more scripted and still more conceived. The first two have been shown on Mattawamkeag public access TV, with a Bangor airing in the works. The first three are being edited into a movie-length video that will be sold at video stores; Knight's canvassing has turned up about 40 that are interested, he says.
For information about DARK CURRENTS, contact Lucas Knight at P.O. Box 101 Winn, ME 04495.
(DLH)
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