From director Suri Krishnamma, Dark Tourist – also known as The Grief Tourist – is a psychological thriller that explores the heart of American ennui and intrigue. Jim Tahana (Michael Cudlitz) is a security guard, spending his nights keeping people out and his morning saying hello to folks as they pass through gates. The absolute monotony seems peaceful for his existence, but many things writhe within Jim’s brain.
In the beginning, we learn that Jim is a “grief tourist,” one who travels to sites of hardship and sadness, and his upcoming vacation is comprised of visiting the little known places haunted by the memory Carl Marznap, a serial killer whose torturous childhood led him to become a notorious arsonist and murderer. As grim as this hobby may seem, in truth it’s no different than those who flock to the former site of the World Trade Center, the vendors that hawk their wares on every September 11th is mock memorial of the event, the thousands that visit the sunken ships of Pearl Harbor, or those who explore Holocaust museums.
And this is how Dark Tourist draws us in: it makes us normal, linking Jim’s interest in the grotesque with our own. From his silence, it’s clear that he has demons. Often coming off as stoic, he strikes us as middle class, brooding, and always deep in thought.
And as the film progresses into the strange and the weird, our connection to Jim becomes eerier and eerier until the final five minutes when we realize just how the thin the line is that divides madness and interest.
More interestingly, Dark Tourist attempts to paint a sympathetic portrait of serial killers. This is not to suggest that it condones murder; rather, it expands beyond the mythology that stems from killing. Carl Marznap’s story is regurgitated in a book that Jim reads as much as it is buried in the town’s folklore, but Carl’s appearance via Jim’s hallucinations makes him human. It’s difficult to misunderstand why Carl killed his parents, an ignorant mother and a father (a minister no less) who would torture Carl and mutilate his genitals. It’s also understandable why he would kill his father’s congregation who all turned a blind eye to the abuse as well.
But much of this is lost to those unfamiliar with the whole story or the void that consumed Marznap’s youth.
Again, Dark Tourist does not condone murder – and, for the record, neither do I – but it provides potential context from the murderer’s point of view and makes the final few minutes a bit less shocking than other thrillers that have simply run out of gas and need to leave the audience wondering what just happened.