Más negro que la noche

Getting a big house is one thing, getting it with baggage a completely different. And no I'm not talking about the house being fully "equipped" ... there are other sinister forces. This is a horror movie and decent one at that overall. Not really great, because it is flawed (cliches and all that), but one that you can watch.

Better horror movies out there (no pun intended) and worse too. This was nicely paced, very well shot and had really good production values. Acting is decent too overall, if you don't mind the stupid things characters do to progress the story ...

I didn't had huge expectations for this movie, because Mexican horror films usually suck. Being a Mexican, I hate Mexican horror/suspense films, because one thing they don't have is horror. And with "Más Negro Que la Noche", a remake from an old Mexican classic, I prove my point again. I missed it when it was on theaters, and it seemed really good, but I'm thankful I didn't paid more than 30 pesos to rent it. This movie is full of horror clichés, but the movie takes these clichés to another level: A haunted house that looks like something horrible happened there, four unlikeable lead characters that are molded with the typical personalities; the actresses acted like it was a theater play instead of a horror movie, they overreact too much, and the scared faces or screaming were too fake, seems like they didn't even tried. 90 of the 100 minutes of the movie are so boring. Nothing happens during the whole movie, the script is so messy and forced, you wait for at least one character to die but nothing happens. All the "horror" you get is noises, random stuff moving, and a very annoying score that was all over the top, and it attempts to scare you but fails miserably. If you know the Mexican horror movie formula, you'll predict that this movie includes ghosts, a black cat, and an old lady that acts as poorly as the young cast. I recommend you to avoid this one! You'll lose 100 minutes of your time.

A girl inherits her aunt's mansion. She used to live there as a kid when she was adopted by the aunt when her parents and sister died. She later was sent to a boarding school. So she does what anyone else would do--move into the place with her three friends but not her boyfriend.

There she's welcomed by the creepy and ultra-formal housekeeper. The only request by the aunt is the the niece take care of Becket the black cat. One of the girls has a pet ferret that doesn't get along with Becket. One night the ferret appears dead and the girl blames Becket and eventually will take vengeance.

That's when things go awry. The mansion is about as stereotypical as it gets. Like a cheesy haunted house done by Disney. It looks large on the outside with lots of windows but all the rooms are tiny and dark. No sunlight gets in and even when people turn in the lights (which they rarely do), it's still pitchblack. There are spider webs everywhere, dust, mysterious rooms, old junk, pictures, a huge painting of the aunt, etc. So at this point everyone starts seeing, hearing, and dreaming scary stuff. The girl grows distant from her boyfriend and when they throw the lamest housewarming party ever, one of the other girls seduces him, even though or maybe because she's involved with the ugliest guy ever. More and more they start freaking out until we find out what exactly happened at the house years ago when the aunt was young and how that's similar to what is going in the present.

Darker Than Night is unfortunately as bad a movie as the reviews and ratings indicate. It's got very little going for it: a cool title for a horror movie that's even more effective in Spanish; the cute Zuria Vega and the stunning Ona Casamiquela, and the performance by Margarita Sanz. That's it. The story is nothing special. And I haven't seen nor care to see the original. The characters are irrelevant, you couldn't care less about these people. For one hour and twenty minutes nothing particularly relevant happens aside from noises. And then when things get hectic it's not particularly impressive either. I saw the 2D version and I didn't see anything worthwhile for 3D. They could have done more with the idea, I'm not sure why they had such low aspirations.

I have to be the voice of descent here. I have not seen the original, so I have no idea how this remake honors its source, but as a standalone film I thought it was great - within the genre. Suspenseful, creepy, and the old housekeeper Avengelina is just a delight. With this being a Mexican film, and so many of its cast having started in telenovelas, I was a little worried when I read so many reviews talking about the overacting. Maybe i'm growing used to Latin American acting, but I really have not noticed any. If you like creepy movies with a few jump-scares and a lot of atmosphere, this one is definitely worth a shot. I will add that I watched it in the original Spanish so I have no idea how good or bad the English translation and dubbing are.

It may seem to some viewers that I am over-inflating this film but I genuinely love it despite its flaws. I loved Mas negro que la noche in the theater, and I have since watched it several times after I purchased it for home viewing. As a fan of giallo films and 1970s horror I thought this 2014 effort was absolutely chef's kiss and I have never regretted buying it.

I also think it is a vast improvement on the 1975 original (it's fine, you can throw things at me now, but I won't apologize).

Darker Than Night is a glossy, action-packed but silly haunted house thriller that abuses all the CGI. I typically hate when filmmakers replace talent with beautiful people and questionable technology but this flick is just pure fun to me, I consider it a "comfort film."