Darkness
Falls: More Bark Than Bite
Darkness
Falls: More Bark Than Bite
Online film critics often get a bad rap in movie industry circles. Studio folk
think that if you don't write for a major paper or magazine or review for an
NBC or ABC radio or TV affiliate, you ain't worth your salt as a journalist.
I know some outstanding reviewers whose work is published only online. However,
much of this good work is being undermined by the various movie-related Web
sites out there (especially one run by a certain red-headed, rotund man) whose
reviews boil down to "This movie sucked!" or "This movie rocked!"
The truth is 80 percent of all flicks fall somewhere in between.
That's why I have been a little surprised at the amount of venom being spewed
online at the new horror flick, Darkness Falls. How any reviewer could
get even the least bit worked up over this film is beyond me. It's just a stupid,
little horror movie. I can't quite recommend anyone pay full admission price
to see it, but I can't deny I had some fun with it. Darkness Falls delivered
a few decent scares. The surround sound is excellent. And some of the visual
effects are a cut above your usual B-movie scare fare.
So, what's bad about it? Yeah, just about everything else. Here's the deal.
Some Mark Wahlberg clone named Chaney Kley stars as Kyle, a man haunted
by memories of his mother's murder in the small town of Darkness Falls. Kyle
knows that it was the work of the infamous Tooth Fairy, who is the evil spirit
of a once-good woman who lived in the town a century earlier. She gave all the
local boys and girls a gold coin whenever they lost their last baby tooth. But
a house fire left her horribly scarred. When two town's children turned up missing,
the local citizenry hung the poor woman. Before she died, though, she vowed
revenge on all of the offspring of Darkness Falls. A day after her execution,
the two missing boys were found alive and well.
Ever since, whenever a kid in Darkness Falls lost his/her last tooth, the Tooth
Fairy came a calling. The psychiatrists have termed the panic attacks "night
terrors," the result of schoolyard legends being passed down from class
to class. Kyle, though, believes the legend. He saw the Tooth Fairy. The movie
gets going when Kyle takes it upon himself to return to Darkness Falls when
the little brother of his former girlfriend, Cat (Emma Caulfield), starts
to suffer from the same attacks he survived as a kid.
Darkness Falls is quite possibly the most derivative horror film ever
made. The film will probably work best as a video night drinking game. Select
your favorite spirit or ale and take a swig anytime one of your party can identify
an exact movie moment completely stolen from another better horror flick. Just
that brief plot explanation should have you nodding your head and muttering
Nightmare on Elm Street, Candyman, The Blair Witch Project,
They.
The list goes on.
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, the film is remarkable in that it contains
not one truly distinct or innovative moment. The first half plays like a traditional
creepy, spook fest. The characters are all stalked by a killer you can't quite
see. Whoever designed the sound mix for this flick deserves all the kudos for
making the Tooth Fairy a genuinely unpleasant entity to just listen to. She
sounds like a cross between the possessed Linda Blair in The Exorcist
and your man Durgin when he gets one of those bad throat colds. You don't know
whether you want the characters to reach for a crucifix and holy water or a
fistful of lozenges from the fine folks at Hall's.
The second half of the film morphs rather jarringly into a fairly involving
action flick. Most movie creatures are content to just stalk one character and
have the rest of the town think that person is crazy. Kyle appears headed down
that familiar road when suddenly the Tooth Fairy just thrashes Darkness Falls'
power grid and begins to attack everyone, including the cops. I did like how
she glided around the local police station's interiors like a witch on a broomstick.
The fact that she was basically picking off complete morons, though, took most
of the tension away.
Darkness Falls is one of those flicks that is just a time passer. The
film has definite niche appeal, but I don't think it has a ghost of a chance
of crossing over and appealing to a mainstream audience.
Darkness Falls is rated PG-13 for violence, language, and intensity.
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