10 Shocking Movie Character Deaths That Came Out Of Nowhere
6. Daryl - Super Dark Times
Owing a debt to the superb teen drama Mean Creek and earlier efforts such as 1994’s tense, difficult River’s Edge, 2017’s Super Dark Times is a psychological thriller whose opening act plays out like Stand By Me if the film replaced its hazy nostalgia with a tense atmosphere of encroaching evil.
The flick follows a pair of aimless teens, Zach and Josh, hanging around in the tract housing suburbs of their dead end hometown, avoiding annoying outcast Daryl who hopes to be their friend as they share stolen joints and goof around with a katana belonging to Josh’s absent older brother.
The meandering, naturalistic plot takes it time going anywhere, leading to an argument between Josh and his insufferable non-friend Daryl over some stolen weed, which leads to an unfortunate fall—and Daryl’s almost-instant death.
The brief sequence is breathtakingly brutal, with Daryl’s life ending out of nowhere and signalling the film’s turn into dark psycho-thriller territory as the boys scramble to solve the horror they’re faced with.
The film’s later scenes may be intense, but nothing offered by the second half of Super Dark Times can compare to this unbelievably shocking scene.