Banks Quinney, Brave the Dark, Carol Florence, Cole Tristan Murphy, Damian Harris, drama, Jamie Harris, Jared Harris, Kimberly Fairbanks, Michael Harrah, movies, Nicholas Hamilton, Pennsylvania, reviews, Sasha Bhasin, Scottie DiGiacomo, Sung Yoon, Susanne Sulby, Tobias Segal, Will Price
March 11, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Damian Harris
Culture Representation: Taking place from 1986 to 1987, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the dramatic film “Brave the Dark” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A bachelor teacher takes on the responsibility of having a troubled teenage student live with teacher, who wants to help the teenager stay out of trouble and lead a good life.
Culture Audience: “Brave the Dark” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in faith-based movies that are redemption stories.
“Brave the Dark” is based on a true story, but it portrays a teacher/mentor as almost too good to be true. And this drama sometimes gets dragged down in schmaltz. However, the movie is able to overcome its flaws with capable acting and believable scenarios.
Directed by Damian Harris, “Brave the Dark” was written by Dale G. Bradley and Lynn Robertson Hay. The movie takes place in 1986 and 1987 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where “Brave the Dark” was filmed on location. “Brave the Dark” doesn’t change the names or personal histories of the two main people at the center of the story: a bachelor teacher and the troubled teenage student whom the teacher invites to live with him.
“Brave the Dark,” which is told in mostly chronological order with occasional flashbacks, begins in 1986. The movie’s opening scene takes place on track field at Garden Spot High School in New Holland, Pennsylvania. Born in 1986, Nathan “Nate” Willams (played by Nicholas Hamilton) is in his last year at his high school. He’s on the school’s track team and is one of the better runners on the team.
However, Nate has anger issues and has been committing crimes. The first indication of his anger issues is shown early on in the movie, in a scene that takes place at the student lockers in the school’s hallway. Nate gets agitated when sees a schoolmate named Carl (played by Sung Yoon) talking flirtatiously to Nate’s girlfriend Tina (played by Sasha Bhasin) at her locker. Tina isn’t really flirting with Carl, but she’s friendly and enjoying Carl’s attention.
Nate gruffly tells Carl to stop talking to Tina. Seeing that Nate looks angry enough to start a fight, Carl backs off and walks away. Tina looks annoyed at Nate and tells Nate that nothing was going on between her and Carl: “We were just talking. Don’t be weird.” It won’t be the last time that Nate acts irrationally possessive of Tina.
Nate hangs out with some of the school’s teenage troublemakers, led by a spoiled brat named Johnny Alecco (played by Will Price), who’s usually the one who plans their crimes and mischief making. An early scene in the movie shows how Nate, Johnny and another friend named Noah (played by Cole Tristan Murphy) do a nighttime burglary of a place called West Barnes Appliance Store, where they steal some items, such as portable stereos and VCRs.
Meanwhile, the saintly teacher who eventually comes to Nate’s rescue is middle-aged Stan Deen (played by Jared Harris, a brother of “Brave the Dark” director Damian Harris), who is the type of person who never seems to lose his temper or never has a bad word to say about anyone. Stan is a kind and compassionate teacher who is willing to help any student who’s in need. In a heart-to-heart moment that Stan later has with Nate, Stan confesses that when he was a young man, he tried and failed to become a Hollywood actor.
On the day after Nate and his pals secretly robbed the appliance store, Stan randomly gives a large chocolate bar to Nate in class. It’s an act of kindness that Nate doesn’t expect. Nate later explains why this chocolate bar meant so much to him at the time. Stan is well-liked by the students, but many of his faculty co-workers think Stan is too much of a softie.
Stan’s closest friend is his co-worker Deborah “Debbie” May (played by Kimberly Fairbanks), who has been trying to persuade Stan to join the tennis team that she’s a member of in her spare time. Debbie seems like she’s romantically attracted to Stan, but he treats her like a platonic friend. In fact, Stan doesn’t seem interested in dating anyone at all.
Stan is a bachelor who has no children and lives by himself. He used to live with his ailing mother, who died the previous year after having a stroke eight years ago. Stan still has the wheelchair that his mother used. Stan has no use for the wheelchair, but he can’t seem to part with it because he seems to want to keep the wheelchair as memento of his mother.
Debbie advises Stan to get rid of the wheelchair as a way to move on and heal from his grief. Stan assures her, “This too shall pass.” It’s a saying that Stan repeats a lot in the movie, almost to annoying levels.
It’s not really made clear in the movie how police found out that Nate was involved in the appliance store burglary, but he’s the only one of the trio of burglars who gets arrested. Nate, who has an avid interest in photography, is arrested while he’s in the school’s photography darkroom with Tina. Several students and faculty members also witness this arrest.
But here comes do-gooder Stan to the rescue. Nate is locked up in Lancaster County Prison, where Stan is the only one who visits him while Nate awaits his trial for the burglary. Stan finds out that Nate was living in foster care until he turned 18. Before he was in foster care, Nate lived for several years with his mother’s parents. Nate tells Stan that Nate’s mother died in a car accident when Nate was 6 years old. Nate also says that Nate’s father is a deadbeat dad who abandoned the family when Nate was a boy.
Nate has not seen his maternal grandparents (played by Michael Harrah and Carol Florence) in several years and doesn’t even know where they live. But plucky Stan tracks down these grandparents and arranges for Nate to be reunited with Nate’s grandparents, who pay for Nate’s bail so that Nate won’t be incarcerated while awaiting trial. Stan also convinces Nate’s reluctant grandparents to have Nate live with them.
Several flashbacks to Nate’s childhood, when Nate was 6 years old (played by Banks Quinney), reveal what happened between Nate’s mother (played by Scottie DiGiacomo) and Nate’s father (played by Tobias Segal) that caused Nate to come from a broken home. The truth is much more disturbing than what Nate is willing to tell people. Nate was put in foster care after his grandparents could no longer handle his juvenile delinquency.
Stan notices that Nate hasn’t come back to school after Nate was bailed out and went to live with Nate’s grandparents. And so, Stan goes to visit Nate at the grandparents’ home. Stan finds out that Nate has no intention of going back to school because Nate had to get a job to pay back his grandparents for the bail money and because Nate needs money to get his car out of impoundment. Nate’s grandparents, who are somewhat skeptical that Nate will be able to stay out of trouble, agree with this plan for Nate to work instead of going to school.
However, Stan is determined to help Nate graduate from high school. Stan convinces the grandparents to let Nate live with Stan, on the condition that Nate goes back to school and graduates. Stan also offers to be Nate’s tutor for whatever academic help that Nate needs. The grandparents willingly let Nate live with Stan because they know Nate has been a troublemaker for most of his life, and they don’t really want Nate to live with them.
Stan inviting Nate to live with Stan isn’t spoiler information because it’s already revealed in the “Brave the Dark” trailer. Most of Stan’s co-workers, including a judgmental snob named Miriam Baker (played by Susanne Sulby), think that Stan is making a terrible mistake by letting Nate live with Stan. They warn Stan that Nate could steal from Stan or could get violent. Stan doesn’t listen to the naysayers.
“Brave the Dark” follows familiar formulas of movies about a teacher who wants to have a special mentorship bond with a tough student. Predictably, Nate resists a lot of the discipline that Stan wants to impose on Nate. Stan tries to break through Nate’s pessimism and does what he can to boost Nate’s low self-esteem. Nate has secrets that are eventualy revealed and deliver the most emotional moments in the movie.
Jared Harris gives a perfectly fine performance as Stan, but the movie gets a tad too contrived when it shows that Stan conveniently has connections that help Stan in his misson to “reform” Nate. It becomes a bit too much—so much so that the movie has Nate making sarcastic comments about all the ways that Stan is able to get things done because Stan has surprising connections in all the right places.
For example, when Stan goes to Lancaster Country Prison to visit Nate there for the first time, Stan is told that only family members are allowed for visitation. But lo and behold, the prison warden just happens to be one of Stan’s former students. That’s why Stan gets an exception made for him to visit Nate as a non-family member.
And here’s another “lucky coincidence”: Stan is able to convince the judge in Nate’s trial to give Nate a lenient sentence because the judge has a daughter who used to be one of Stan’s students. Stan also uses his connections with Nate’s parole officer Barney (played by Jamie Harris, brother of Jared Harris and Damian Harris) to help Nate out of a tough situation that could get Nate punished.
Hamilton does a convincing performance as Nate and makes the character more than just an “angry young man.” Hamilton’s best scenes in “Brave the Dark” are when Nate shows his vulnerabilities. Some of these scenes are heart-wrenching to watch and might be triggering for people who’ve done self-destructive things in their lives, or have had loved ones do the type of self-destructive things that Nate does in the movie.
The pacing for “Brave the Dark” occasionally gets dull. But if you’re able to keep watching after the first half of this 112-minute movie, the story gets better as it goes along. To its credit, “Brave the Dark” doesn’t do a lot of sanctimonious religious preaching, like other faith-based movies are prone to do. To its discredit, “Brave the Dark” ignores harsh realities about racial inequalities for punishment in the criminal justice system. It’s the type of movie that oversimplifies some complicated issues that would come up in real life.
In real life, chances are very slim that “at risk” youth will have a teacher like Stan to come along to give them undivided attention, help them out of bad situations, and offer them a place to live. But movies like “Brave the Dark” are made because these stories are not the norm for teachers and troubled teens. “Brave the Dark” has an admirable message that if more people took the types of risks that Stan takes for someone who is considered “hopeless,” then it could change lives for the better and have a positive ripple effect on others.
Angel Studios released “Brave the Dark” in U.S. cinemas on January 24, 2025.