A couple of years ago, Teeny Bopper horror movies were the ones that made the most money. Now it seems that there has been a slight variation. Teens/people in their young 20ies are now pitted against mythical monsters instead. Jeepers Creepers was the first of these, and this Darkness Falls is the latest.
While I didn't enjoy Jeepers Creepers, I did actually find the sequel (Jeepers Creepers 2, if you didn't know) quite enjoyable. So a couple of weeks after renting JC2, I went back to the video store and saw Darkness. I had seen it on the shelves before, but back then it had not sparked my interest. But now, I rented it and along with some chips I went back to my house, hoping that this would be a good movie.
The first thing I noticed was that I had picked the wrong kind of chips. Then I popped the DVD into the player.
The plot is quite simple, and something we have heard a hundred times before. An old lady used to live in the city of Darkness Falls, about 150 years ago. The people around town used to call her the tooth fairy, cause she used to give children money when they had lost a tooth. One day, she was accused of having killed two children and was hanged by the townsfolk. With her last breath she cursed the town of Darkness Falls.
Fast-forward to present time, well, almost. Young Kyle Walsh has just lost the last of his child's teeth, and merrily hops into bed thinking he'll get some cash for it. Instead, the murderous tooth fairy emerges and, even though Kyle manages to escape by staying "in the light", his mother bites the dust.
Fastforward again, and we find Kyle, now in his early twenties, living alone, very disturbed by his constant nightmares of the tooth fairy. We learn that she is still haunting him, trying to kill him since he has seen her. But by staying out of the darkness and in the light (the tooth fairy cannot enter the light), he has survived. Kyle gets a phonecall from an old girlfriend from his childhood: Caitlin Greene, whose brother has the same symptons that Kyle has. Kyle goes back to the city of Darkness Falls, in hope of helping this poor kid out. But that's when the tooth fairy appears again, and kills, pretty much everyone who Kyle meets.
The beginning of the movie, where Young Kyle is attacked by the tooth fairy, is immensly scare and tense. Very well done. I loved it. Unfortunetly, after that the movie went downhill. Very downhill. The following 40 minutes has Kyle simply walking around, talking to folks in his old town, and telling his past to his ex, Caitlin. This part of the movie is OK. But about 50 minutes into the movie, we realize that this movie is utter garbage. Suddenly, what started as a very good horror film, has turned into somewhat of a... I don't really know what to call it. But Kyle travels from diffrent locations in the town at night, and meets about 20 diffrent people. All of which are killed off in. One each minute. It's awful. At this point of the movie, the plot is completly abandoned, and all we can comprehend is Kyle yelling "Stay in the light!" (Pitch Black, anyone?) and people being grabbed by the tooth fairy and dragged into the darkness.
It's to bad this movie turned into such a stinker. It had alot of promise. A cool villain, some good actors, a very nice soundtrack and some nice directing and editing (in the FIRST part of the movie). Bottomline is, don't even rent this film. If someone you know happens to own it, ask if you can watch the first ten minutes of it, then turn it off. Believe me, it's not worth watching the whole movie (even though it's only 82 minutes long, and that includes ending credits of ca: 11 minutes)
3 / 10.
While I didn't enjoy Jeepers Creepers, I did actually find the sequel (Jeepers Creepers 2, if you didn't know) quite enjoyable. So a couple of weeks after renting JC2, I went back to the video store and saw Darkness. I had seen it on the shelves before, but back then it had not sparked my interest. But now, I rented it and along with some chips I went back to my house, hoping that this would be a good movie.
The first thing I noticed was that I had picked the wrong kind of chips. Then I popped the DVD into the player.
The plot is quite simple, and something we have heard a hundred times before. An old lady used to live in the city of Darkness Falls, about 150 years ago. The people around town used to call her the tooth fairy, cause she used to give children money when they had lost a tooth. One day, she was accused of having killed two children and was hanged by the townsfolk. With her last breath she cursed the town of Darkness Falls.
Fast-forward to present time, well, almost. Young Kyle Walsh has just lost the last of his child's teeth, and merrily hops into bed thinking he'll get some cash for it. Instead, the murderous tooth fairy emerges and, even though Kyle manages to escape by staying "in the light", his mother bites the dust.
Fastforward again, and we find Kyle, now in his early twenties, living alone, very disturbed by his constant nightmares of the tooth fairy. We learn that she is still haunting him, trying to kill him since he has seen her. But by staying out of the darkness and in the light (the tooth fairy cannot enter the light), he has survived. Kyle gets a phonecall from an old girlfriend from his childhood: Caitlin Greene, whose brother has the same symptons that Kyle has. Kyle goes back to the city of Darkness Falls, in hope of helping this poor kid out. But that's when the tooth fairy appears again, and kills, pretty much everyone who Kyle meets.
The beginning of the movie, where Young Kyle is attacked by the tooth fairy, is immensly scare and tense. Very well done. I loved it. Unfortunetly, after that the movie went downhill. Very downhill. The following 40 minutes has Kyle simply walking around, talking to folks in his old town, and telling his past to his ex, Caitlin. This part of the movie is OK. But about 50 minutes into the movie, we realize that this movie is utter garbage. Suddenly, what started as a very good horror film, has turned into somewhat of a... I don't really know what to call it. But Kyle travels from diffrent locations in the town at night, and meets about 20 diffrent people. All of which are killed off in. One each minute. It's awful. At this point of the movie, the plot is completly abandoned, and all we can comprehend is Kyle yelling "Stay in the light!" (Pitch Black, anyone?) and people being grabbed by the tooth fairy and dragged into the darkness.
It's to bad this movie turned into such a stinker. It had alot of promise. A cool villain, some good actors, a very nice soundtrack and some nice directing and editing (in the FIRST part of the movie). Bottomline is, don't even rent this film. If someone you know happens to own it, ask if you can watch the first ten minutes of it, then turn it off. Believe me, it's not worth watching the whole movie (even though it's only 82 minutes long, and that includes ending credits of ca: 11 minutes)
3 / 10.