Super Dark Times

Super Dark Times (2017) is Kevin Phillips' coming-of-age thriller, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Two best friends, an ordinary afternoon, one freak accident — and a life splits clean in two.

Zach and Josh have known each other since childhood. The setting is the mid-nineties suburbs: bikes, VHS tapes, no phones to call for help. A group of teenagers is goofing around when something happens that can't be undone. They decide to bury it. From there the secret starts rotting them from the inside — suspicion, sleepless nights, the creeping sense that a lifelong friend has become a stranger you should fear. The film rides on its two young leads, Owen Campbell and Charlie Tahan, and on dread that builds with almost no music and very little blood.

This was Phillips' feature debut after years as a cinematographer, and it shows: cold, beautiful, shot like a memory of adolescence where something went badly wrong. Think closer to Stand by Me than to a slasher — slow, nervy, and hard to shake. It's for anyone who likes a moody indie thriller with no cheap jump scares. Stream Super Dark Times (2017) online on iFILM.