Más negro que la noche

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."

I may firstly say that I love some of the people who appear in this film, and one of the actors is someone I love dearly since childhood. They've had pretty heavy roles in some of the most controversial Mexican series of recent times. Their acting is usually very good, but it's a very different thing to make a long-haul telenovela to a proper feature.

Said that, this film revolves around a house, a cat and a bunch of girls and a weird lady that try to make us feel uncomfortable. The problem is that they don't succeed on the task. And that's supposed to be the very raison d'etre for a horror movie. If you can recall acting as contrived and stiff as the old lady's, well... I have to pry my brain open to remember one, apart from some very bad comedies.

Kudos for the location, cinematography and 3D. The post is superb. Lighting, audio and props, top notch... what you'd expect from a much more expensive film.

Thumbs down to the story-telling and the over-the-top acting. These girls could be very nuanced and subtle in some other films, but here... well, yeah, OK. Eréndira Ibarra may be one of those rare gold nuggets that needs a film just for her -this wasn't the one. And I KNOW for sure, she needs a film of her own, because she's a fantastic actress. Here, she's just the cussing tough one.

I guess the main problem is all the characters are fleshed out of their own stories and little is revealed to have the time to connect, empathize or feel for them even a slight connection. That puts them out of the way as you can concentrate more on the house, the furniture, the props... which... well, all of them are beautifully captured in glorious 3D.

So, in the end, they've got a very polished result, visually, but without bones to lay your teeth on.

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.

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 ...