Aside from the cursory glance I usually give to all movie trailers that appear during television commercial breaks, Darkness Falls failed to capture my attention for any special length of time. In fact, upon walking into the theater and sitting down, I had absolutely no idea what this damn movie was about. I knew it was some kind of "scary" movie that would most likely remind me of another carbon copy "thriller" like They. What I didn't know was the basic storyline of Darkness Falls-- mainly, who's the evil creature that's killing shit this time around? Well, right before the movie started, my girlfriend clues me in to the fact that the evil antagonist in Darkness Falls is none other than the Tooth Fairy herself.
………
..it was around that time that the brain cells responsible for controlling my better judgment began beating the holy crap out of the brain cells that controlled my vision and hearing in a visceral reaction to protect me from any permanent damage.
Surprisingly, the first part of Darkness Falls is actually very well made. It's creepy as hell, and the lighting and camera angles are perfect-you're never shown so much that it's not scary, and you're never shown so little that you're totally alienated from the film. What makes scary movies so scary for moviegoers is the sensation that they're experiencing the same thing as the actors/actresses on screen. The whole Darkness Falls crew deserves a hearty pat on the back for their stellar work in the first 15-20 minutes.
And then, sadly, everything goes to hell. What you get for the next hour of your life is that carbon copy "thriller" to which I alluded earlier with such disdain. You'll know the exact point when Darkness Falls turns into just another stupid movie-when the kids grow up. Yup, scary movies are always great until the child actors are replaced with these dumbass goofy teenagers or adults with mental issues. Here's a tip to all the moviemakers out there: If you want to make a movie that plays off of everyone's instinctive childhood fears, then make a movie with child actors only. The concept to which I am referring is similar to viewing only the first half of Stephen King's IT without watching the second half. Face it, movies are scarier to watch when the actors/actresses are children because we get to imagine that we're there AS KIDS TOO, reliving all our old puerile fears. Fuckin' DUH.
So like I said, Darkness Falls is the story of a small town (of course) where some old bag was hanged for being a witch (or something), and her ghost likes to fly around and kill children who have just recently lost their last baby tooth. A sound premise for sure. And guess what? Some kid gets traumatized, but later grows up to realize his role in the fate of the planet and becomes the hero who slays the evil ghost. I don't believe I've ever heard of this plotline, have you? Zzzzzzzz
I'm telling you, if the entire movie had played out like the first 15 minutes, this would have been simply a fantastic movie-one worthy of your money. But as it stands, it's just another ridiculous hour and a half of watching a group of young adults and unimportant characters die one after another until the director gets tired of filming and just kills off the ghost in some predictable way. I would give it lower than a B-, but I gave They a B- and Darkness Falls is exactly the same if not a little better. |
