Fails the Bechdel test

Super Dark Times

Name: Super Dark Times
Released: 2017

2017. Directed by Kevin Phillips, written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
4 women characters. 2 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Teenagers Zach Taylor and Josh Templeton have been best friends their whole lives. But when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between the two boys and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.

Released: 29 Sep 2017
Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated: Not Rated
IMDb: 6.6 / 10
Metascore: 75 / 100
Awards: 4 wins & 5 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Zach 318 lines, man
Josh 176 lines, man
Daryl 82 lines, man
Karen 64 lines, woman
Charlie 63 lines, man
Allison 60 lines, woman
Rebecca 18 lines
Chad 11 lines, man
Dennis 11 lines
Duke 10 lines, man

Full cast, 15 people

Owen Campbell as Zach
Charlie Tahan as Josh
Elizabeth Cappuccino as Allison
Max Talisman as Daryl
Sawyer Barth as Charlie
Amy Hargreaves as Karen
Adea Lennox as Meghan
Ethan Botwick as John Whitcomb
Philip H. Ashley as Chad
Justin Rose as Kevin
Kortnee Simmons as Eugene
Hayden Oliver as Colin
Dario Saraceno as Sheriff Bowman
Anni Krueger as Ms. Barron
Samantha Jones as Joan

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 117

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	0	0
4 to 6	0	0
7 to 9	1	21
10 to 12	0	46
13 to 15	0	56
16 to 18	5	54
19 to 21	16	31
22 to 24	0	33
25 to 27	0	42
28 to 30	0	113
31 to 33	0	5
34 to 36	11	7
37 to 39	6	4
40 to 42	0	14
43 to 45	10	8
46 to 48	0	2
49 to 51	11	11
52 to 54	0	0
55 to 57	3	4
58 to 60	1	45
61 to 63	7	8
64 to 66	6	21
67 to 69	5	7
70 to 72	0	14
73 to 75	22	21
76 to 78	2	10
79 to 81	4	11
82 to 84	9	45
85 to 87	4	11
88 to 90	5	4
91 to 93	0	2
94 to 96	1	2
97 to 99	1	3
100 to 102	0	12
103 to 105	2	4
106 to 108	0	8
109 to 111	0	0
112 to 114	0	0
115 to 117	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 16 are women's.

132 lines from women, 679 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

4 women and 7 men in the cast. 2 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 23 of 863. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 215 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 23% of the words (1,285), men 77% (4,377). Women have 16% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit D: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Kevin Phillips (man)
Written by: Ben Collins (man), Luke Piotrowski (man)
Produced by: Edward Parks (gender not listed), Jett Steiger (man), Richard Peete (man)
Shot by: Eli Born (man)
Edited by: Ed Yonaitis (man)
Music by: Ben Frost (man)
Production design by: Jasmine E. Ballou (woman)
Costumes by: Stephani Lewis (woman)
Cast by: Susan Shopmaker (woman), Lois J. Drabkin (woman)