Darkness

In terms of its storyline, "Darkness" is pretty much like every other haunted house movie ever made. We start off with the usual unsuspecting family of four who find themselves knee deep in ghouls and ghosts the moment they move into their new residence (the family is American and the home is in Spain in this outing). Of course, anyone in his right mind would hightail it out the door two seconds after setting foot in the house - but not this group! They want to hang around to see what "happens." It is Oscar-winner Anna Paquin, as the moody but perceptive teenaged daughter of the clan, who gets to have her name above the title here - a dubious distinction at best, I'm sorry to say.

"Darkness" has just about all the standard accoutrement's one would expect to find in a film on this subject. In addition to the perpetual thunderstorm taking place outside and the electricity that keeps going out on cue, we also have the self-activating toys, the strange voices on the telephone, the ghostly images on photographs, the father who becomes exponentially more psychotic in every scene in which he appears, and the mysterious old man with the limp who shows up out of nowhere and seems to hold the key to everything. Seasoned veterans will be able to predict just about every hackneyed setup and cliché a full hour before it officially arrives on screen. For instance, we just know, without room for quibble, that the minute the mother brings home a box of colored pencils for her delighted little boy to play with, the tyke will start drawing strange and disturbing pictures to help push the plot points along. It's practically de rigueur when it comes to films in this vein. (However, I must say, in all fairness, that the movie does NOT include the cat-jumping-out-at-the-audience scene, which is pretty much standard issue for every horror flick these days. The filmmakers DO earn some bonus points for that).

Paquin makes for a feisty heroine, and it isn't really her fault that her character always seems to be ten giant steps behind the audience in figuring it all out. And as to the "What the *&$%?" ending - well, it's either so brilliant that it is beyond the ken of mere mortal man to figure out, or it's one of the biggest final curtain stumbles in horror movie history. I have my own personal notion as to which of those two it really is, but I'll let you figure that one out for yourself. After all, I have to leave you with SOMETHING interesting to do while you're watching this film.

This has got to be the absolute worst of all of the Asian horror rip-off wannabees around. It is the least terrifying and most boring of all the horror films I've seen since the year 2000, and perhaps even earlier.

The whole plot idea is just another version of The Shining with some Poltergeist stuff mixed in for good measure. Every time the father goes wacko, I'm fully expecting him to pop his head through someplace and say, "Here's Johnny!" There's positively no suspense in this thing at all and the whole last half hour is completely obvious, so it's just a matter of, do you turn it off, or watch to see how right you are. Besides that, the story idea is beyond lame and without any depth or thoughtfulness. It's a exercise in pursuing filmic style over substance, yet here the substance is almost non-existent and the style is plagiarized.

To make matters worse, the acting is tepid at best. The actors portraying the mother and father turn in rudimentary performances without conviction, the son is also just there for the filling. The most terrifying moments of the whole film are when watching the performance of the daughter, basically a one-note deal, with every facial expression used for effect being about the same, and a monotone voice warbling in constant teenage angst. We have characters constantly whispering for no reason regardless of their setting.

Also, the daughter is just about the most obnoxious and bitchy teen girl ever, and attempts to present herself as the moral fascist in charge of the family. Viewers may find themselves hoping for her demise at the end just to be rid of her. And also hoping for the end to come as soon as possible so they can watch something else.

PS: I've read every HP Lovecraft story published, and I don't see this as being anywhere close to "Lovecraftian".

I was quite impressed with Jaume Balaguero's first feature "The Nameless" which mightn't have been original, but it was coldly disturbing and effectively suspenseful. Now I heard and read nothing but poor things on his second feature "Darkness". I couldn't escape the negativity, and naturally I was expecting something very weak. However came away from it thinking what an interesting failure into supernatural/occult territory. The main problem is due the story's stale familiarity, which never really is given the chance to rise above its foreseeable hints, embarrassingly shallow script and ludicrously ragged framework. Talk about hazy, and I mean real hazy. It's cryptic, but extremely convoluted and mundane. Even with Balaguero's understated, glossed up icy direction, which works in some eerie, and jarring visuals that go a long way of building up a quiet intensity and dreary atmosphere.

Still everything about it is downright mechanical and probably a bit long in the tooth, but it didn't seem to bother me because I found it rather intriguing despite the muddled, paper-thin intentions. There's just something lurking behind this jilted mess that I found fascinating, but the narrative does get lost amongst the busy visual style. From the beginning, we learn it's all about the casually paced build-up, but the shocks are too clichéd (like creaky sounds, moving shadows) and the final pay-off doesn't have too much of a sting to it. Technically the film looks the part with its dark composition and sterile cinematography, and the weeping, otherworldly music score works a haunting tone. The sound devices are so old-hat and forced, but they're pinpoint, vitriolic and really do surround you. The characters don't fair any better, and I thought the performances from a solid cast were modest enough even with their flimsy characterisations. Anna Paquin was suitably appealing and maturely strong, but a awful Lena Olin looked quite uninterested and Iain Glen was terribly uneven. Giancarlo Giannini stays on cruise control, and Stephan Enquist turns in a fine performance.

Spain - what a great country! It gave us Julio Medem, it gave us Alejandro Amenabar, and now there's Jaume Balaguero, the man who brought us Darkness, a horror film that's clever, fresh & intriguing. An american family (Iain Glen & Lena Olin) with a teenage daughter (Anna Paquin) & a little boy (Stepnah Enquist) moves into an old house somewhere in Spain, and soon enough find out that there's something wrong with it. There are ghosts of children, supposedly murdered in this very house, there's a strange man walking around the house watching it silently, the little boy is afraid of the dark & wakes up with bruises on his body & the father, who A) has a dark secret in his past, which is somehow connected to the house & B) is not very well in the mental department, starts going a little bit crazy. Sure, it all sounds corny enough, and every person who've seen films like The Sixth Sense, A Stir Of Echoes and The Shining can smile his way through the first half of the film thinking he's seen it all already. But Balaguero has more tricks up his sleeve then just a collection of genre cliches. In fact, he enjoys playing with these cliches, because later things turn not quite the way you were dead sure they would, and the final act has even more surprises in stock. The film is genuinly scary, especially in the second half when the tension just won't let up. The visuals are good - a couple of scenes are pretty likely to haunt you days, maybe even months after watching the film. The final verdict: definitely worth seeing, maybe even more than once. I haven't received that much pleasure from a horror film in quite a while

P.S. And please, people, stop comparing it to The Others, the two films have very little in common except for the set-up (children in a haunted house)

I had heard bad things from the few people I know who had seen this film. I was still curious though, I think Anna Paquin is a somewhat underestimated actress who is rarely given what you could call a leading roll. Other than that, I knew nothing that the back of the DVD case couldn't tell me. Anyways.

I really enjoyed this film. It was well made, it was tastefully done and yes I found it to be scarier than just about anything else I've seen lately. Plus it features a pretty good turn by Fele Martínez who also starred in 'Abre los ojos', the film Cameron Crowe dubbed in English and called Vanilla Sky.