Analysis of Lovely, Dark, and Deep: What's Following You?

Warning, spoilers ahead! If you don’t care about spoilers and want a break-down of the film’s deeper meanings to explore subliminal messages and symbolic interpretations, then, onward. The main character in which the story focuses on Lennon, is a young woman struggling with anxiety and a mysterious past. We come to find out what is haunting her. She moves out to become a park ranger in the vast wilderness of one of North America’s national parks, known for its list of unexplainable missing persons, typically unreported.

The deer is a spirit, entity, or image which appears in the first half of the film a number of times, leading up to the gruesome events that follow. The deer can be represented in one of two lights. The first being symbolic of the purity of the earth, neutrality, the calm before the storm. The second being a symbol of the unknown. A link to supernatural realms, a divine/otherworldly connection, or paranormal interactions, which, depending on the viewers attitude toward the afterlife, can have good or bad connotations surrounding it. The deer is either a reminder for her to stay calm, stay true to her childhood innocence and the soothing coos of nature, or, rather, a warning for Lennon to be vigilant for what’s to unfold.

Lennon is followed by unhealed trauma, guilt and shame, as she believes her sister’s disappearance was solely her fault when she was a young girl, coincidentally, inside of another national park, which may explain her desire to be a park ranger. Demons and ills plague her. She doesn’t express her feelings with anyone, as the viewer is left to read her physical demeanor for the majority of the film. She listens to podcasts about missing persons every day, adding to the trauma, emptiness, and likely powerlessness she feels from losing her sister at a young age. To add, the podcasts she listens to elicit a sense of hopelessness as she couldn’t do anything to save those peoples, as well as soaking of negative news and sources, causing more trauma to impact her. 

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The wilderness is a theme we encounter early in the film as the opening quote is as follows: 

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” - John Muir

The forest hides secrets. The park, the wilderness, the great outdoors, or nature, whatever you’d like to call it, represents a space where troubled, sick, or lost souls go to slow down, remove traumas, and heal damaged parts of themselves in order to resume living their lives, or choose to remain wild for the remainder of their lives. Usually, this endeavor is an involuntary one, as most are unaware of the internal battles they’re about to enter, greatly affecting their external environment as well. No one asks for trauma, demons or haunted memories to attach to you and follow you around in life.

The forest had a trade system where they would take one body/person in exchange for another. One person would be released, but their place would need to be refilled with someone else. That was the way the system worked, there was no adjusting it or compromising with the “them” or the forest spirits the characters seemed to refer to, as if it was all unexplainable, as if it didn’t begin in the individual’s mind.

Lennon was experiencing what is known as the dark night of the soul(DNOS), a period of time where someone feels disconnected from divine/self and void of pleasure in previously enjoyed hobbies, interests or social activities. If one is disconnected from the divine then they are disconnected from themselves, or their true soul frequency, purpose, or life source. Those who have experienced the DNOS may feel dead inside.

From the start, you could gather Lennon was a troubled young woman who preferred keeping to herself. She rarely disclosed information about herself or shared her past, and there were supposedly rumors spread about her being “crazy,” which she denied once in the film with her fellow park ranger, Jackson, who attempted to get to know her better. She acted off-putting and reluctant to divulge any pieces of her, clearly unwilling to discuss her past afflictions. When he asked a simple question about the rumors, she became defensive and was avoidant when he asked her any personal questions. It was prevalent that she was being tormented by something inside her, which she was later forced to extinguish or release from the depths of the source of her trauma which was the day her sister was taken without a trace. Though it isn’t revealed in the film, her younger sister was likely taken/lost in another forest, for another reason, unrelated to the “forest spirits”.

As Lennon runs into a few people needing help, and a missing young woman named Sarah was reported to the team of ranger’s, Lennon begins to feel responsible for the whole occurrence, once again, rummaging up more ingrained trauma and guilt from her past. In order to bring some sort of justice to her sister’s disappearance, she decides to go searching for the woman, despite what Jackson directs her to do, which was stay put. Opposing his instruction, she stumbles across the woman in distress, wearing blood on part of her body, obviously suffering from her own past traumas. Sarah asks Lennon, “are you real?” which is a pivotal question in this film, where your answer makes or breaks you. Lennon doesn’t respond, as Sarah wraps her arms around her, thankful to have found another person to save her. Once they return to camp, Lennon tries explaining to Jackson it wa okay she didn’t listen because “we found her,” and he interjects, stating, “you found her,” meaning, she has to suffer consequences and now find herself. From this moment, Lennon unknowingly embarks down a path of her own tragedies and blighted life experiences, discovering pieces of herself she hadn’t found before.

Lennon explored the forest alone where she gradually becomes lonelier, and more confused, especially as we build closer to the climax. As the film progresses and Lennon herself grows more disoriented and misguided in the woods after finding Sarah, any comforts or familiarity she had with her surroundings fades. She begins to question her own mind as she grows delirious from the effects of the “forest spirits” or, possibly, the roots of her traumas. 

In the thick of all her entangled torments, she becomes hounded with missing person posters scattered throughout the woods, and yet, she knows she has no power to help all those missing people, including her own sister. She is presented with the option to take the life of an elderly couple (regain power) camping in the forest, at the worst point of digging through her trauma. She has to decide if she wants to let the darkness suffocate her and take control of her own actions, losing her humanity, or to fight past the worst stage of the madness she feels. 

Some of the victims taken in the forest are never to be found again (their minds) or heard from again (their souls). They float into the abyss of death. Whether they be physically present inside an empty vessel, or physically absent with an energetic spirit roaming the forest, they are forever trapped in one point in time. Their core self couldn’t be salvaged, like you can knock but no one’s home, or their soul couldn’t be saved, trapped in the hell of reliving traumas, tragedies and death loops, we could assume. Some become lost forever, meaning they lose their souls/minds, and cannot find their way back. Their spirit dies, they metaphorically and/or physically disappear forever, so if one isn’t strong enough or too badly “broken,” unable to repair the shattered pieces, then they will dissipate into the lands/winds/soils never to return again. If they do manage to make it out alive, through the dark night of the soul (DNOS) and face all their demons that are haunting every aspect of their life, then they are free to be. Lennon was confronted by Zhang, an elderly woman who was the lead park ranger. Zhang mentioned the forest spirits “take, and we let them,” and that she had had enough allowing them to collect more troubled souls. Sacrificing herself, Zhang freed Lennon from the entrapments of “them” or the forest spirits. Lennon, once she let go of her guilt for her sister’s tragic disappearance in the woods, and forgave herself, all while maintaining her humanity by refraining from hurting other people in the woods, despite the darkness she was dealing with, she became free to become an ordinary park ranger, like she wanted in the first place. She found peace within herself and so she was relinquished from the nightmares, flashbacks and twisted hallucinations she was having. She felt lighter and a bit more care-free. Of course, she’ll never forget the horrific images, feelings, thoughts and bouts of madness she went through, since the day she lost her sister, and most prominently when she was forced to face her trauma, but she can rest easier knowing she is not to blame and that she made the best decisions she could at the time. Zhang’s missing poster was now listed in the camp’s meeting room, where they induct new park rangers every year, unaware of the darkness that lies within the park’s forests.

We know ‘good’ people can become burdened and griefed with unhealed trauma, and many aren’t aware they’re bogged down by trauma every day of their lives. There are ‘bad’ people who don’t acquire trauma because they have much less of a conscience. Whether a person wishes to solve the root of the trauma, or find a healthy outlet which combats the sometimes lifelong effects, depending on the form of trauma the individual is coping with, is strictly up to that individual to decide. Whether or not trauma is something which can be healed in stages or must be complete once you start is another area of study to dive into.

I, myself, am left with a few questions I’d like to prompt readers to contemplate. 

1. Are the soul and the mind compatible? 

2. Does one dominate the other? 

3. Can they be evenly balanced? 

This film has a range of very real, complex problems millions of humans deal with annually from the spiritual, to the emotional, to the mental aspects of being. The deeper meaningful lessons the film offers is heavily intertwined with the human psyche and the human condition, otherwise, our human natures.

In conclusion, trauma affects each individual differently, and can be extremely confusing, downright horrifying to work through the process of healing. You will have many questions, concerns, and at times feel empty, overwhelmed, or exhausted. There will be no ground to stand on and it may feel like your whole world is crashing down. Some questions may never be answered. Some pieces of you may never return. Some parts of your life will never be the same. There will be phases of your journey which make absolutely no sense to you and learning to accept it and come to terms with the emotions and thoughts it may have stirred up is how you know there has been progress.

One misconception about healing is that there is a beginning and end, however, true healing is lifelong. Some forms of trauma such as PTSD or CPTSD may affect your life for years or a lifetime. You know that you have healed an appropriate amount when it doesn’t affect others or the trajectory of your own life. When you can say and believe that you enjoy your life and feel alive each day, that, is how you know you’ve healed good enough. Until another life-altering event takes place. If only life were perfect and certain. We take it one day at a time and celebrate wins while we savor the quick moments of merriness, joy or contentment.