Darkness Falls
darkness falls
I was working at a haunted house a couple years ago and I was assigned to the "room at the end of the dark tunnel". So, what I did was hid in the dimly lit corner and waited until the guys and their easily-startled girlfriends came close enough, then jumped out and did a glorified "boo". And after a couple hours of this I realized that a cat could do my job better than me, so I started attempting more dramatic things, like pacing around manically talking to myself about my many (fictitious) murders in detail. Soon enough the teenager who was working with me started giving me the "idiot" look and asked what the hell I was doing.
Darkness Falls is a darkly-lit story about a psychotic tooth-fairy evil who stalks people in the dark. Sounds kinda silly, but isn't a demented hockey player kinda hoakey too? Villains can really be anyone (just ask Stephen King). Well, anyone except clowns. Clowns are just meant to make people laugh... Luckily there are no Clowns in Darkness Falls, because a fit of laughter would have probably ruined this vaguely scary horror movie.
Half Blair Witch, half Pitch Black, the movie attempts to keep the villain from being totally perceived, but it also delights in the moments of revelation. Read that five times fast backwards with a sugar rush and what does it say? Like the old man with the paintbrush: "just a little bit of color". A large portion of the killing occurs in the dark, but the visible times are fairly well done.
Sure, there's a large hoak-factor to it (c'mon, the demonic easter bunny in Donny Darko was probably scarier than this haircut-needing-escapee-from-macbeth), but overall, it's a good attempt at putting a little life into a growingly cumbersome genre. It attempts to strike the above balance of sight and mystery unlike most horror films that wallow in one camp or another with a childlike (and wholey boring) glee.
Perhaps this movie needs a setup. Bear with me on this tangent.
As the patrons finish sitting down, a large click is heard, and they hear someone yelling "oh no. the doors are locked." (cheese factor). then the house lights go dead along with the floor lights (and then the safety people come in and shut it down--no?). the surround channels in the theater blast a witches cackle lightly through the theater and the sound of fluttering cloth is heard. a man crying is heard. bam, roll opening credits.
this isn't all that great a plan (I'd make fun of it if I was in the theater), but at least it's interesting. I think horror filmmakers are going to have to get a little more creative than cats to scare today's audiences. Sure, a "sudden" loud noise will make anyone jump out of their seat, but it's too shallow. Blair witch involved the watchers before they entered the theater with its crazy campaigns. That probably won't work anymore, but horror creationists should find some way of making their job creative again, rather that just paint-by-numbers.
Back to the movie...
It was alright. Acting was pretty good. Script was contrived but passable. Visuals were good. Sound effects were good. Direction was alright.
There's not much to be said about this movie. It's worth a watch after midnight on a saturday (when it comes to video), but other than that, leave it be. This isn't a movie worthy of high praise, or low brow insults. It's just a movie. Watch it if you like the genre, leave it alone if you don't.
I give it 2 out of 4.
|
