Rish's Reviews
Ever since I was a child, people have looked to me as a sort of horror film expert. They'd ask me about movies, many of which I'd never even seen ("What's the name of that movie with the giant preying mantis?" "What's the film where the doll tells the little girl to kill?" "What's the show where the guy's nuts are removed with a weed whacker?"), and most of the time, I knew the answer.
But I don't know everything. I wish I did; you'd be paying through the nose to see semi-annual fright flicks I've written. I think I know, for the most part, what a good horror film is and what a bad one is. The WHY is a much more difficult answer.
Take Darkness Falls, for instance. The first horror film of 2003 has a lot going for it: a great premise, a nice score, effective lighting and cinematography, excellent marketing, and an awesome monster. But it was not a great movie. It wasn't terrible, mind you, but I think "mediocre" is an apt description, if you need only a single word.
In the mountain/coast town of Darkness Falls, children live in fear of The Tooth Fairy, the ghost of a wrongfully hanged old woman who visits each when they lose their last baby tooth and brings death to whichever ones look upon her face. Twelve years ago, Kyle ran afoul of her and escaped with his life (although he's forever scarred by the experience). But when he gets a call from his old hometown, that his old girlfriend Cat's young brother is having the same experience as he did, he decides to go back and face his fear.
I didn't see it, but this sounds an awful lot like the movie tyranist reviewed, They, from a month or two back. The concept of the ghost character was really good, and I especially liked the idea that she wouldn't harm you if you didn't look at her. A pity they didn't take more advantage of that point. The other thing was, the ghost could only get you in the dark, as she quickly fled from the weakest of light sources. That led to a couple clever uses of darkness and light, as well as the otherwise throwaway line that Kyle now works in a Vegas casino (where I assume, the lights never go out).
The kid was alright, though he had Sixth Sense Syndrome, as so many horror movie children have lately (need I explain that one?). But why was he Cat's brother, wouldn't her son be more logical? He was her son for all practical purposes. Don't they have parents? Several subplots seemed to have been lost, most noticeably which characters Kyle knows after his twelve year absence, especially one bully-type who wants to beat him up (dollars to donuts he gave young Kyle the scratches he wears in his first scene). And what was up with the obnoxious lawyer character? He couldn't have tested well. Emma Caulfield (from TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is cute and doesn't stink up the screen as Cat, but she's forgettable, and this is hardly the star-making performance of, say, Neve Campbell in Scream or Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. Kyle, played by virtual unknown, Chaney Kley, didn't really stand out either, though I certainly didn't hate the guy.
The Tooth Fairy herself, created by Stan Winston Studios, is quite impressive, her frightening movements accompanied by scrotum-chilling sound effects. She looks a cross between the Soul Collector from The Frighteners, The Phantom of the Opera, and Jason (post-mongoloid) Vorhees, though she's much scarier before we fully see her. And you know, I don't think they ever refer to her as "The Tooth Fairy" except for in the prologue. I imagine it's because people find the concept of an evil tooth fairy laughable. Either that, or the negative connotation of the word "fairy."
Two little things: sadly, there was a pretty good credit sequence they abandoned to after the film, and a lot of the dialogue seemed looped, perhaps to cover Australian accents? Executive Produced by Samuel Z's son, Louis Arkoff, the film was financially quite successful, though the critics sure loathed it (and yeah, it is overflowing with cliches, from the idiot hick cops to the cat jumping out accompanied by the idiot screeching sound effect to the convenient power outage during the storm to the even more convenient flashlights going out, but who'd pay attention to stuff like that?). And Darkness Falls wasn't horrible, not at all. The big question was: why wasn't it great? What was missing? Why wasn't it scarier? I mean, I should have been terrified to turn out the lights or get in my car or take a dump for fear that SHE would be lurking nearby. What went wrong? Was it the script? The editing? The direction? Sadly, boys and girls, I have to remind you that, once again, I don't have all the answers.
Best Scare: You know, the first twenty minutes or so are genuinely scary. Unlike The Ring's opening, where the grating teenager deserved what she got and I rooted for her death, I liked the kid and was genuinely concerned for his safety. Sadly, this sequence was the best part of the movie.
I'd Recommend It To: Those who can see it on the big screen. I fear that what little impact or power the film might have had will be utterly eliminated in the home video format. So, unless you're reading this within fifteen minutes of my reviewing it, it's not one I'd recommend.