Darkness Falls

January 31, 2003

Starring: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Joshua Anderson, Andrew Bayly, Emily Browning, Lee Cormie

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Official Website:http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/darknessfalls/

Man, you`d think people who make a horror movie that`s just a regurgitation of every horror flick made in the past 20 years because they are too lazy to come up with anything else would not be able to get out of film school and stuck at Walmart or something, but no... Here comes Darkness Falls, take the reject auditions to The Ring and Scream, borrow the robe the guy in Scream had, Micheal Myers` mask, and low and behold you have a totally different movie!! Yeah Right...

First things first, I say give them whatever credit they deserve. The first killing scene is often the scariest, and it is the case with this one, the first 10 minutes are somewhat effective, though nothing special. There are a few other action scenes later which are fast-paced and loaded with scary music and camera trickery that get the audience`s attention. And...well that`s about it for credit.

Not every horror flick has to be genius, but if your gonna copycat other films, copy good ones!!! Whatever happened to flicks like Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream that added the special taste of humour and nudity to compliment the other scenes? How many times does that damn lead actor have to repeat the line "Stay in the light!!"? We get it already!! Basically, everything has been done already in this movie, once you`ve seen the "villain" in a few scenes, anything in this is hardly scary.

Wouldn`t it be nice to make a petition to have Steven Speilburg Executive Producer, Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise lead roles, Revive Stanley Kubrick for director, raise 250 million through "Give a dollar if you think George Bush doesn`t know what he`s doing, two if you think Tony Blair doesn`t either" and have them bring the Horror genre back to dignity? I can dream...So can the makers of Darkness Falls if they thought people would buy their pathetic attempt to scare people.

In short:
Comedy: Nope, probably because they knew the acting itself was enough to make the audience laugh
Violence/language: Yeah, there is a little of both
Nudity/sex: None
High Points: Some ok suspense scenes, some fast paced action scenes
Low Points: Bad acting, totally predictable, holes in plot...Need I go on?

Rating: D+