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UK SciFi / Horror and Fantasy |  |
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Darkness Falls [2003]
ReviewsI LIKE IT Review date: 2007-08-30 Rating: 8 out of 10 Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley) returns to the small town of Darkness Falls to help his childhood girlfriend, Caitlin Greene (Emma Caulfield), whose brother is hospitalized with severe night terrors. It seems that a town legend of the "Tooth Fairy" is haunting his imagination, and Walsh had similar experiences. Is the "Tooth Fairy" more than just a childhood myth? It's so much fun watching films multiple times. It's very rare that my opinion remains the same on a film from one viewing to the next. Sometimes my rating goes down, sometimes it goes up, and sometimes it stays the same, but I like or dislike the film for different reasons than I did on my first viewing. Darkness Falls (2003) is a case where my rating has gone up quite a bit since my last encounter with it. I think the difference this time was for two primary reasons--one, when I first saw this in the theater it was in the midst of a slew of horror films that had similar themes, and maybe I was getting tired of it by the time I watched this one, and two, I think the positive aspects worked well enough for me this time that I was more forgiving of the few flaws the film has. And it does have flaws. Let's get those out of the way first. The main flaw for me was some of the super-fast editing during the horror "action" scenes. Occasionally it was so fast that I couldn't very well tell what was going on. However, I also realized this time that at least occasionally, the editing is perfect for the scene. For example, there is a scene set the small town police station that is inherently chaotic. Chaotic editing is the only thing that would fit. The other flaw is that there are occasional lapses in plot logic. The most crucial for me occurred during the climax, where there were a couple actions taken that I was a bit confused about. It didn't help that the climax is also slightly marred with hyperactive editing. However, in both of those cases, the good stuff far outweighed the bad for me. The villain in Darkness Falls is excellent in conception and design. The backstory is captivating. When it's initially told through a "slideshow" during the opening credits, I was thinking that I would have preferred them to give me a 10-minute historical prologue, but in retrospect, I'd prefer to see an entire film that's a prequel telling the villain's story. I loved the small town setting of the film, and the interactions of the characters in the script. They seemed like real people to me, with entwined pasts. I loved the three main characters, and thought their performances were very good. Since I'm a big Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan, that might have supplied Emma Caulfield with some unconscious bonus points, but I loved her acting here. What really matters in a film like this is the horror material, and director Jonathan Liebesman handles it skillfully. Although I'm not usually a fan of modern films having shorter running times (it was more understandable back in the days of literal A and B films on the same bill at a theater), Darkness Falls is compact because there is little "dead time" between the suspenseful material. Liebesman only spends as much time as necessary with "serious drama" to amplify the horror. These types of scenes were handled well enough to make me either forget or not care if there were any rules broken when it comes to keeping the villain at bay. Although I'm not someone who finds films scary, I can see Darkness Falls working for many viewers in terms of frights. Many primal fears are touched upon. There is an excellent extended bit in complete darkness (you only hear the soundtrack), and of course darkness and things coming out of the darkness is a major theme throughout. You also get scenes of claustrophobia, loss of control, elevators, hospitals, and many other situations that should work on more receptive viewers' sensibilities. This one is worth seeing, but approach it more in the frame of mind of a fun roller-coaster ride than a literary masterpiece Impressive Review date: 2007-02-24 Rating: 8 out of 10 I went down to the Pheonix DVD hiring store and saw some 'buy' movies at a really cheap price. My mom picked this up and showed it to me, not as i had even heard of the movie before. Anyway i became tempted to buy it as it looked really good and i wasn't losing out if i didn't like the film as it was so cheap! Well it's certainly one film i actually did enjoy! I usually dislike many that i hire and finding a good thriller can be hard. However this has some great effects inside it. If you have a surround sound in your home all the more you would enjoy this. It's a movie you either hate or you love basically but i don't really understsnd why a lot rated this fairly low because there isn't so many bad points to this film. The acting was good, the plot/storyline were too (although a little pathetic). It's not scary as such but has some jumps inbetween which keep the movie good. It's well worth the hire, though i do say young ones should probably stay away from this because it can give out bad nightmares. great..? Review date: 2006-02-07 Rating: 8 out of 10 okay, so the film's not as fantastic as sleepy hollow..however, when it comes to substance, this film HAS it!!! a word of advice, make sure you watch this film with friends around, otherwise it won't really mean that much..as for comparisons to Friday the 13th etc...as far as i'm concerned, they do NOT compare because the tooth fairy in the story is Aussie not American, but hey, it's up to you Quite good Review date: 2006-01-25 Rating: 6 out of 10 Don't get me wrong, from a simple point of view, this movie is great, but from a critical, it lacks quite a lot. Kyle returns to his hometown, after his mother was "killed" by the toothfairy. He returns because his childhood sweetheart Caitlin, (buffy star anya) 's brother is sick. It all starts off ok, but after the first encounter, the movie splashes headfirst into screaming cliche. As us horror ffans know, cliches are simple to understna and create a simple movie, but in this case a bit too sumple. Product Details/SpecificationsActor(s): Lee Cormie Chaney Kley Antony Burrows Emma Caulfield Grant Piro Creators: Chaney Kley (Primary Contributor) Emma Caulfield (Primary Contributor) Derek Dauchy (Producer) Irene Dobson (Producer) Jason Shuman (Producer) John Fasano (Producer) John Fasano (Writer) James Vanderbilt (Writer) Joe Harris (Writer) Director(s): Recording label: Uca Manufacturer: Uca EAN: 5050582371703 Binding: DVD Number of items: 1 Format: PAL, Widescreen, Release date: 2005-09-05 Number of discs: 1 Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region code: 2 Running time: 82 minutes Theatrical release date: 2003-01-24 Language: English (Original Language)
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