Blackwood

What annoyed me the most about this movie was the drab, very dark photography. There are lots of scenes where you can barely make out what is happening onscreen. It's fine to make a movie using only natural candles (and low light bulbs) as lightning, but it should be done professionally, and without everything looking gray and washed out.

The plot begins nice, moody and intriguing, but the minute Ms Duret is on the screen, it starts to border on the comical. Her flat character acts, talks, sounds and dresses like a cynical parody of a dumb, pompous headmistress who has no clue what she is doing, but wants to appear competent no matter what.

The script looses focus, basic reason and coherency in the middle of the movie, and it all pretty much falls apart in the end. The last scenes are very touching, but hardly make you feel satisfied or rewarded for watching a dark screen (with some fire and candlelight on it) and listening to Duret blabbering about being a Genius or feeling inspired. She is a deluded narcissist living in a dream world, but how she could ever establish & run this surreal, otherworldly school is another of the many questions the sketchy script does not care to answer.

The score is very classy and stylish though, unlike the rest of this forgettable production.

The outcast troubled teenager Katherine "Kit" Gordy (AnnaSophia Robb) is invited to study in Blackwood and her mother and stepfather drive her to the old and isolated manor. She is welcomed by the headmistress Madame Duret (Uma Thurman) with four other colleagues and forced to develop their talents in mathematics and arts. Soon Kit realizes that supernatural forces are possessing them and increasing their talents. "Down a Dark Hall" is an almost good film with a promising and intriguing beginning. The storyline is good, but the screenplay is flawed after the confused ball in the manor. The performances are not bad, but Uma Thurman has a weird accent and AnnaSophia Robb does not convince as a seventeen year-old teenager despite the good acting. The cinematography is too dark and difficult to see. It is a pity since very few improvements would be necessary to make a great film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Troubled teen Kit Gordy (AnnaSophia Robb) is accused of a past incident and sent to a special school with other troubled girls run by Madame Duret (Uma Thurman). It's an old mansion under renovation.

Nothing happens in the first half. It's a little moody but nothing special anyways. Then everything happens in the second half and I'm not sure that I understand it all. It has some elements of a good moody gothic horror but it's not pulled together that well.

AnnaSophia Robb and Uma Thurman lead the cast in the supernatural horror film Down a Dark Hall. Based on a bestselling book, the story follows a rebellious teenage girl who's sent to a reform school for troubled youth called Blackwood, but she soon discovers that something strange is going on and begins to suspect that she and her fellow students are being used for some nefarious purpose. Robb gives a fairly good performance and director Rodrigo Cortes does an impressive job at creating an atmospheric mood. However, the storytelling is a little weak and lacks strong villains. Also, the supernatural isn't really played for scares, and the scares that are there seem a little out of place. Still, despite its problems, Down a Dark Hall is a creepy thriller full of mystery and intrigue.

I had high hopes with the one after seeing the preview. The Flitting shadows that disappear had me intrigued. But no, it was not to be. There was a whole lot of movie, but really a whole lot of not much. When I rate horror movies I usually give a little leeway as there are so many bad horrors out there. Slowly but surely though there are so many horror movies entering the realm that are just nothing. P.S. Uma does a really annoying job at pretending to be a person pretending to be french.