Brave The Dark (2025)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, January 25

PG-13 Running Time: 112 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Fans of Angel Studios and their recent wave of faith-based, inspirational dramas will likely find a lot to appreciate about Brave the Dark.

  • Even with my reservations about the film, there is no doubt this story means a lot to the real person most impacted by the story - the film’s main character, Nathaniel Deen.

  • Tries very hard to leave an emotional impact and uses every penny of the film’s $200,000 production budget.

NO

  • Not every feel-good story lends itself to making a feature film.

  • Stilted dialogue and some wooden acting performances leave Brave the Dark looking a bit amateurish at times and stunts the film’s emotional impact.

  • The screenplay undoes much of this - not truly trusting its audience with subtlety and logical thought and instead telling its audience everything it needs to know.


OUR REVIEW

Brave the Dark is a film which tells an inspirational story documenting a troubled teenager finding safety and refuge with a teacher who becomes his custodial guardian. While there are no doubts that the real-life story of Nathaniel Deen means everything to him, the film he helped create plays like a singular tribute to a man who showed love and compassion and gave a home to a kid in need.

In no way is that meant to diminish the very personal story that lies at the heart of the film. Without a doubt, this teacher, Stan Deen, made a life-changing and life-saving impact on a young Nathaniel. However, not every feel-good story necessitates a feature-length film. 

Movies involving a mentor changing the life of a troubled kid are all too common, and one of Brave the Dark’s problems stems from this film feeling rather unremarkable. The dialogue is on-the-nose, the performances range from good to not so good and the movie seems to struggle to justify its own existence. Despite some intense subject matter, Brave the Dark is a relatively easy film to consume - a melodramatic story of overcoming obstacles and accepting and trusting the love offered to you. 

Set in 1986, Nate (Nicholas Hamilton) is secretly homeless and living in his car. After a falling out with his custodial grandparents, the high schooler makes it from one day to the next the best way he can. He joins the track team so he has access to a shower. He is dating Tina (Sasha Bhasin) - none the wiser to her boyfriend’s circumstances. And he ravages a chocolate bar offered to him one morning by his nicely-tempered teacher, Mr. Deen (Jared Harris). 

While not sustainable, Nate believes he can handle these things and stay under the radar. His friends are those bad-influence-movie types who smoke cigarettes, see female classmates as objects, brag a lot, and force their friends to throw house parties when parents are out of town. Nate ends up getting arrested for burglary and soon everything unravels - his homelessness comes to light, Tina dumps him, and the 17-year-old is left with nowhere to turn and no one left to trust.

Enter Mr. Deen. A bit of an odd tandem, Brave the Dark becomes very predictable once Nate reluctantly moves into Mr. Deen’s home. Hesitant to accept his teacher’s kindness, Stan Deen is, himself, a lonely man, mourning the recent loss of his mother. He seems respected enough by his students, loves listening to Shakespearean plays on vinyl, and believes mentoring and helping others provides meaning to his life. 

Directed by Harris’ brother, Damian Harris, the film is a bit smooth in terms of layout but clunky when showcasing dialogue and emotion. Harris, a Welsh actor, struggles mightily with his midwestern Pennsylvanian accent and Hamilton tries extremely hard to convince us of the pain and anguish Nate is suffering from.

Hamilton does the best he can with the tropes he is given and Jared Harris has a few nice moments. A jolt of energy in a rather melancholic film comes from Kimberly S. Fairbanks. As Deborah, she is Stan’s friend and looks after him. More of their connection would have provided a boost to a film that routinely feels like it needs to lift its head up a bit and not feel like a story being told by someone staring down at the ground. 

In no way does being critical of the film minimize the real-life tragedy Nate endured. Yet, with this screenplay and paint-by-numbers predictability, Brave the Dark seems to preach to us everything we should be be feeling, seeing, and experiencing from one scene to the next. 

Shot in 2021, then hitting the faith-based festival circuit in 2023, Brave the Dark arrives in theaters in January 2025. The latest film from Angel Studios (Sound of Freedom, Bonhoeffer), the Christian film studio whose releases are approved by the Angel Guild, a group of more than 400,000 followers of the studio who determine what films and projects get the Angel Studios moniker.

Produced with a budget of approximately $200,000, the journey from real-life story to script and screen has been more than a decade-long journey for Nathaniel Deen, who changed his last name in tribute and appreciation to Stan’s influence on his life. And even with its struggles, the film leaves you appreciating people’s indomitable will and desire to survive.

For Brave the Dark to be the movie it wants to be, it simply needs to be stronger and hit harder. With nothing left to question or really discover on our own, Damian Harris and his team of screenwriters do a disservice to their audience by forgetting that audiences can draw logical connections and oftentimes offering less can almost always mean more.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Nicholas Hamilton, Jared Harris, Jamie Harris, Sasha Bhasin, Will Price, Kimberly S. Fairbanks, Carol Florence, Michael Hannah, Daisy Galvis, Joey Cabrera, Scottie DiGiacomo, Tobias Segel, Banks Quinney

Director: Damian Harris
Written by: Dale G. Bradley, Lynn Robertson Hay (screenplay), Damian Harris (additional writing)
Based on an original screenplay written by Nathaniel Deen and John P. Spencer
Release Date: January 24, 2025
Angel Studios