The Dark Valley (German: Das finstere Tal) is a 2014 Austrian-German Western drama film directed by Andreas Prochaska, based on Thomas Willmann's sole eponymous 2010 novel.

The film stars Sam Riley as a lone traveler who ends up in a small town in the Alps, finding corruption and tyranny running rampant.

Having introduced himself as a photographer, Mr Greider, he becomes the lodger of a widow whose husband and son suffered an untimely death.

Soon, the newcomer learns that the entire town is firmly under the dominion of an aged rich man named Old Brenner and his six power-drunk sons.

At every local wedding they claim the (fictional) medieval prerogative of Primae noctis; only Greider's parents (the young couple from the opening scene) had refused to comply.

He then seeks to deliver the message of their deaths to their father, but discovers that some citizens of the town remain loyal to Brenner senior.

As Greider approaches Brenner's home he is attacked by the blacksmith, a hulking giant brandishing a large iron log hook.

Meanwhile, the various families that live on the valley ask to punish Greider as many have relatives to Old Brenner due to his ways and still being subjected to conservative belief that "rulers are always right" but they are too weak-willed to fight him plus he can easily kill them.