Sunday, January 23, 2011

Darkness Falls

2003

Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman
Written by: John Fasano and James Vanderbilt and Joe Harris  Story by Joe Harris
Starring: Emma Caulfield, Chaney Kley, Grant Piro


From IMDB "A vengeful spirit has taken the form of the Tooth Fairy to exact vengeance on the town that lynched her 150 years earlier. Her only opposition is the only child, now grown up, who has survived her before."
So if you stay in the light you will live.

Clearly there was a budget and more than 12 days to shoot for this one.  Good cast.
A couple nice tense moments in the opening scenes.

It would seem this vengeful ghost is intent on framing both young Kyle and older Kyle for murder.  She sure manages to wreak a lot of havoc and leave him holding the shitty end of the stick.  Weak.  That kind of a tension device doesn't feel right in a good horror film.
It also appears the town of Darkness Falls is largely populated by red neck bullies of limited intelligence.

After about 95 people die badly, it seems the rocket scientist deputy (who is clearly another bully at heart) is starting to realize something is up and maybe Kyle isn't the murderous psycho everyone believes him to be.

Caulfield is wasted here.  I would have liked to see her as more than the confused sister just trying to understand it all.
I do like the Tooth Fairy effects.  She's suitably foul.  I understand Stan Winston created her.  I'm told there was a previous incarnation that was pretty impressive.  Haven't seen it though.

This was a sincere attempt to make a scary movie and they succeeded here and there.  I didn't care too much about the characters though but I enjoyed the comic relief from Grant Piro as lawyer Larry.  Many horror movies drop the ball in this regard.  Even Shakespeare understood you need to give the audience at least three chances to breathe.
Not too many logic flaws.  You don't find yourself groaning with the "That would never happen" line too often.
In horror when we utter that line, what we're usually referring to is when people do things we don't believe they will do - like split up to find a way out of the haunted house.

So in the end - well made horror movie but the script was a bit weak.  It just didn't land as well as it could have.  Still - it's worth seeing if you love the genre.
3 Bloody Eyes might be too generous but what the hell.

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