Darkness
Year: 2004
Director: Jaume Bologuero
Written by: Jaume Bologuero, Fernando de Filipe
Threat: Darkness
Weapon of Choice: Pen
IMDb page: 
DarknessYear: 2004 Director: Jaume Bologuero Written by: Jaume Bologuero, Fernando de Filipe Threat: Darkness Weapon of Choice: Pen IMDb page: |
|
Other movies in this series:
none
Rish's Reviews
My goodness, it's been so long since I saw Darkness that all I can remember
is that Anna Paquin is super hot. Thank goodness I took notes when I watched it.
Let's see. Anna Paquin is super hot, and stars in Darkness, with Lena Olin
as her mother (pretty good casting), and Giancarlo Giannini as her grandfather. She,
her brother, and parents move to a big scary house in Spain, little knowing that a twisted,
evil ritual was begun there years before, and is now finally coming to fruition around
her and her family.
This film was shot and sat on a shelf for, what, two years? Like Dagon,
a film tyranist raves about, Brian Yuzna produced it. The film was shot in Spain and
takes place there. But why doesn't a single soul speak Spanish? Even when they turn
on the TV?
Throughout the film, there was lots of screaming and hysterics. Paquin's character is
angry (as most teenagers are), but sometimes she is difficult to like because of it. She
is really protective of her brother, and in a world where the adults become increasingly
untrustworthy and undependable, she soon has to find it within herself to rise to the
occasion.
Even so, I was left wanting by the end of the movie. Perhaps the foreign locale and
makers had something to do with it, but I consistently wondered what was happening
and why. A great deal was left to the imagination. But maybe too much . . . exactly
WHAT happens to the characters who die/disappear?
Darkness has a very interesting premise. And children really scare me. I've
mentioned it before. And this had some very nice scares involving things appearing
in the shadows. Children . . . ghosts . . . beings. Still, it's unsatisfying in the end. I
mean, first of all, it's hard to explain what the Threat is. Do I put Darkness?
Haunted House? Demons? Devil Worshipers? Ghosts? There was a lot I didn't
understand. What happened, exactly? It was vague. Too vague.
The film had really unusual, stylistically effective lighting. There was great use of
moving, eerie shadows, and enormous abouts of black space in the frame. For that,
the title was very apt.
Best Scare: They feature some sickening old time photographs, where the subjects'
faces look like skulls. That was great, and truly messed up.
I'd Recommend It To: Some people enjoy symbolism and puzzling solutions out for
themselves a lot more than I do. For those folks, who appreciate it when they don't
know the "what"s and "why"s, check this one out.
Posted: December 27, 2005
Total Skulls: 18
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing |  |
|
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | |
|
| Power is cut | |
|
| Phone lines are cut | |
|
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | |
|
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | |
|
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | |
|
| Warning goes unheeded | |
|
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | |
|
| Flashback sequence | |
|
| Dark and stormy night | |
|
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | |
|
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | |
|
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | ||
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | |
|
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? | |