The first part of a new year at the movies is never good, except
for the Golden Globe and Oscar hopefuls that are still raking in
the big bucks, with more to come.
The first part of a new year at the movies is never good, except for the Golden Globe and Oscar hopefuls that are still raking in the big bucks, with more to come.
As far as new films go, the studios save the very worst for the months of January and February, and “Darkness Falls,” unfortunately, is being used to prey on an unsuspecting public, one hungry for a good horror film. This one, which is doing good business, is a sad excuse for a movie with little in the way of a good story, convincing characters or scary moments.
“Darkness Falls,” which also is the name of the town in which the film takes place, concerns itself with the mystery of the Tooth Fairy, a woman named Matilda Dixon, who would place gold coins under the pillows of children who would lose their baby teeth. Beloved for years, Matilda’s plight changes when two children mysteriously disappear, causing a rage throughout the small town. Certain that Matilda has murdered the children, a mob hunts her down, blames her for the kids’ disappearances, and then kills her like a pack of wild dogs.
Ever since the Tooth Fairy was murdered by the locals about 150 years ago, the town has been cursed. What they don’t know is that Matilda placed the curse on them after being killed, and her spirit pounces on any unsuspecting victims she can find.
We find out that the murdered woman was actually innocent, and, therefore, I guess the town gets what it deserves. It certainly is a bad place to be for the dead victim, who probably deserves a place in Heaven. But, in this movie, she is forced to live a life as a spirit who acts and kills for nothing but revenge for her own death.
We endure countless acts of violence, but, because we know what’s coming, we’re never scared. We get numb by the shocks, but the fun is left out of it.
“Darkness Falls” goes back in time, and we find out that the two children who disappeared showed up a few days after the townspeople murdered Matilda. How embarrassing! When we flash forward to present day, we find out that murders have been happening every so often in the small town for about 150 years ever since the time Matilda was killed by the mob.
None of the murders have been solved, which should give the people of “Darkness Falls” a clue as to what’s happening, but the characters aren’t smart enough to figure that out. What we get is predictable horror through and through.
We meet the main character Kyle (Joshua Anderson) when he is a young boy and has just lost his last baby tooth, which he puts under his pillow. He’s probably about 13, and asks his pretty little girlfriend Caitlin (Emily Browning) to go to a school dance, and they have their first kiss.
When he goes to sleep, he starts to dream and hears strange noises and what he thinks are monsters. Frightened, he sprints out of his room and tells his mom (Rebecca McCauley). Of course, she thinks it’s the boy’s imagination, but she gets brutally killed when she enters the room, causing young Kyle to go insane.
We catch up with the adult Kyle (Chaney Kley), who has been fighting demons ever since his mother was killed by the mysterious monster thing, at the hospital. Kyle has befriended a young boy named Michael (Lee Cormie), who has just lost a tooth and is convinced the Tooth Fairy will murder him if he falls asleep.
A murder is committed near the hospital and of course, predictably, Kyle is apprehended, but Michael protests his friend’s innocence.
“Darkness Falls” is a bad idea for a movie, as it rehashes better ideas used in “The Ring” and “Nightmare on Elm Street,” among countless others. It’s an amazingly-dull dud and hopes to use its genre to pick up a tidy sum at the box office before people realize what a dreadful film it is.
Darkness Falls. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Screenplay by Joe Harris, John Fasano and James Vanderbilt. With Chaney Kley, Emma Coulfield, Lee Cormie, Joshua Anderson and Emily Browning. 90 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence). Now playing at Bay Area theaters.
