Darkness Falls
Corporate responsibility and greed have ruined horror movies. Pressured by public and political groups to clean up their act and stop marketing adult material to teenagers, Hollywood has gone to such extremes to comply that most of the horror films of the last couple of years feel like shadows of their former self.
Instead of making and marketing R-Rated horror films that obviously appeal to teenagers, Hollywood now makes PG-13-Rated horror films so they can have their cake and eat it too. Unfortunately, with “Darkness Falls,” someone left the cake out in the rain, leaving those of us who appreciate a good, adult scare with nothing more than a watered-down mess.
Even though first-time South African director Jonathan Liebesman and no less than three writers try to manufacture a modicum of suspense and thrills in “Darkness Falls,” they fail. Definitely another case of style over substance, “Darkness Falls” plays like a neutered pit bull in a muzzle: all bark and no bite.
A mostly Australian cast populates this dreary tale of a small New England town haunted by the vengeful spirit of an innocent woman burned alive for misdeeds, but even the folks Down Under seem perplexed by the meandering plot and by-the-book character development.
“Darkness Falls” begins with a prologue set 150 years in the past, where Matilda Dixon, a local of the small town Darkness Falls, is known for her generosity and kindness. Dubbed the Tooth Fairy by children who gladly exchange their baby teeth for gold coins, Matilda’s seemingly simple life goes straight to hell when she’s implicated in the disappearance of two children and burned to death by an angry mob.
Before she dies, Matilda curses Darkness Falls, a curse that goes unheeded even though death seems to stalk generation after generation of children and adults alike. A second prologue introduces us to Kyle, a 12-year-old boy who makes the mistake of putting a recently excised tooth under his pillow, thus summoning the dreaded Tooth Fairy. Even though he escapes the Fairy’s wrath, Kyle’s mother isn’t as fortunate.
Saddled with the horrific (at least in his mind) death of his mother and accusations that he was responsible for it, Kyle leaves Darkness Falls, vowing never to be left in the dark again. Now an adult, Kyle (Chaney Kley) fills his Las Vegas apartment with enough back-up illumination to land the Space Shuttle in a fog bank. When childhood friend Caitlin (Emma Caulfield) summons Kyle back to Darkness Falls to help protect her little brother Michael (Lee Cormie) from the Tooth Fairy, he reluctantly returns.
Kyle’s presence causes concern among the locals and the police, who don’t believe in ghost stories even as their small town encounters one unexpected death after another. Since the audience is already wise to the truth, all of this is just posturing until everyone is one the same page.
Writers John Fasano, James Vanderbilt, and Joe Harris aren’t very persuasive in their arguments, even having difficulty sustaining interest for the film’s twig-thin 80 minute running time. In order for any of this to work, most of the characters are reduced to dimwits. After ten minutes of stunning disbelief, you just wish the Tooth Fairy would kill everyone and put them and us out of our misery.
“Darkness Falls” could have been a wicked fairy tale, but the limited rating never allows director Jonathan Liebesman to pull out all of the stops. The film is very restrained, even for a PG-13 effort. There are occasional jump moments, but they are of the cheat variety and never come with a decent payoff. Liebesman directs with conviction, but he’s not talented enough to realize he’s dealing with marginal material and tired clichés.
The actors aren’t much better, reacting to a boogeyman that is about as frightening as a dentist in clown make-up. Kley looks appropriately frazzled as the tormented adult Kyle, but there is no depth to his performance. You care more about his electric bill than his fate. Caulfield is pretty to look at, but her character is often reduced to nothing more than histrionics, which gets old fast. Cormie is okay as her haunted little brother.
Even though the plot is as old as the hills, I blame “The Blair Witch Project” for the recent proliferation of recent films dealing with pissed-off ancient spirits looking for revenge. I didn’t like “The Blair Witch Project,” but I really hate what it has done to the current state of horror films. Coupled with Hollywood’s desire to get as much bang for their buck as possible, the end result is a film like “Darkness Falls.”
GRIM FAIRY TALE
“Darkness Falls” and can’t get up
DARKNESS FALLS
Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro, Sullivan Stapleton, Steve Mouzakis, Peter Curtin. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Rated PG-13. 83 Minutes.
LARSEN RATING: $2.00
