Black Island or Schwarze Insel is a mystery-thriller movie directed by Miguel Alexandre and starring Hanns Zischler, Hanns Zischler, and Mercedes Müller, alongside other cast members. The total runtime is 104 minutes.
The Netflix description reads:
The dark secrets of a seemingly peaceful island threaten to swallow up an orphaned student when he grows close to a mysterious new teacher.
– Black Island review does not contain spoilers –
– Trigger warning for grooming –
Black Island starts with a woman getting attacked and murdered by a dog. There is a woman standing close by who looks at her hatefully. The same woman hatefully looks at the murdered woman’s son and daughter-in-law and they, too, die. This is Jonas’s family, who is now left orphaned, except for his grandfather, whom he presumably does not get along with.
Anyway, after this, Jonas moves in with his grandfather in order to not move away from the island and a year later, everything seems ok. Until, of course, the new teacher comes in. She’s easy-breezy and different from the others – she’s the cool teacher, you know? But is there something more going on here?
Black Island starts off by creating a chilling atmosphere. We don’t know why Jonas’s grandmother was killed by the dog or why she murdered Jonas’s parents. Either way, Helena seems mysterious. We are told early on that Helen has something more going on than meets the eye. She does things that normal people don’t and generally comes off as a creep.
On the other hand, Jonas and his grandfather’s relationship, too, seems a bit strained. There was clearly some problems between his father and grandfather and that seems to stem from his rigid outlook towards writing, something Jonas is passionate about.
Anyway, Black Island is confusing for the better part of the movie. Ok, it was scary because there is some grooming involved here. Teachers starting sexual relationships with their students is disgusting and not cool at all. However, there’s always an underlying sense of dread of the supernatural that we are not made privy to for some time.
Thus, you wait for a long time in order to figure how things work together. Was Jonas’s family involved in causing harm to Hannah in some way? As we peel back the layers slowly, you get a better sense of what’s going on. And as the layers peel, it becomes increasingly apparent that this is a mediocre movie. There’s a murder in the library which just gets over way too easily and conveniently.
Then, as Black Island reaches its last 30 minutes, it becomes the generic thriller that doesn’t thrill and neither does it scare. I’m sure you’d be able to figure out what’s going on, but you’d want it to be something else – just for the sake of your sanity if nothing else. Also, when the truth comes out, the grooming just takes on a whole different level of disgust.
Also, the movie starts by giving us the impression that there might be something supernatural going on – with the random dog attacking Jonas’s grandmother and whatnot. However, there is nothing supernatural here, and I am confused why the creators thought that this shift in tone was necessary. It’s hella confusing to watch and leaves you wondering what to think.
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Black Island looks absolutely wonderful though. The production quality is high, as expected from Netflix, and that shows in the way the movie looks. It’s beautiful and the light and shadows are perfectly balanced. The acting is fine and Alice Dwyer is mysterious enough to keep the ruse going. Philip Froissant as the confused Jonas, too, is good and believable.
Summing up: Black Island / Schwarze Insel
Black Island starts off with sort of a promise and is confusing enough to keep you mostly guessing. However, before long, things start to take the tried and tested route and eventually becomes a let-down. It’s not the worst movie out there, but don’t watch this with really high expectations.
Black Island is streaming on Netflix.
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