Blackwood, le pensionnat

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.

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.

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.