Blackwood, le pensionnat

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.

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

Well I like the idea of spooky stuff going on in an old boarding school. I just didn't think this movie did it very memorably. Uma being miscast was distracting, although I thought Anna was likeable. The ending did have some level of satisfaction, but nothing that will stay with you. Just a cheaply made disposable horror that no one will find scary.

Seriously, I kit you not. %80 of the movie is filmed in almost complete darkness to the point I could hardly see what the hell was going on. Must have bean dead cheap to make if nothing could be seen.

Film is OKish, nothing that wasn't done before but the freaking darkness just annoyed me.

The premise is intriguing, and you can tell it tried it's darn hardest to be a successful supernatural, suspense drama/thriller, but this film just could not weave together these elements well enough to tell a captivating story. The actors were great, but the writing and character development was lacking. The cinematography and grand setting was beautiful, but was not accompanied by a well written story. The first act had promise, the second was questionable and then the final third just fell flat on its face. By not layering successful elements of supernatural horror in a consistent method, the final act's horror reveal, which should have been thrilling, just look plain weird. I was really looking forward to this movie, but it failed to deliver a decent film despite having all the right ingredients.