Darkness (2002)


REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


"Darkness" (2002) is about a family moving into a new house with a terrible past. When the past is dug up, it brings havoc on the entire family.

It seems in the genre of Horror, clichés have become a common thing. Veterans of horror films can usually guess which way a movie will go. The good films will keep you guessing and the mediocre ones will usually have a lot of signs pointing to the fact that the viewer has seen this before. The Darkness, however, seems like every horror cliché has been bunched into a standard movie time. Apparently the unrated edition is the one that is on Netflix and I am basing this review on that version.

The film starts off decent enough with a young Anna Paquin and a VERY young looking Iain Glen. They are the stars I noticed immediately and think they performed the best. Oddly enough, the problem with this 2002 horror film isn't the acting, it's with the pacing. It takes 30 minutes for anything to happen, but when it does pick up, every horror cliché in the book comes to light. I'm talking about; children giggling, kids drawing crude pictures with crayons, hidden rooms, lights turning off in a hallway when a character walks down it, etc. The clichés become tiring and after a while, it sort of became a game to me. Counting all the ways this movie DOESN'T stand out was more fun than the actual film. I'm not saying the film is terrible, but I also cannot praise it for anything.

I know it was made in 2002. It's just that "Darkness" doesn't hold up after 14 years. It had a lot of good ideas, but were executed very poorly. The story was too predictable and the constant camera shaking when something spooky was about to happen was pointless. There was a decent scene towards the end of the film, but by then it was too late. I wish I had more of that during the entire run time besides the last 20 minutes or so. Acting wise, it stands out against other films of the time frame, especially with Iain Glen, but that's not saying much.

If you are in the mood for a decent ghost film with decent acting, then give this a watch. Don't expect anything new to the world of horror as this film is extremely mediocre for 2016.
OVERALL: 
If you are in the mood for a decent ghost film with decent acting, then give this a watch. Don't expect anything new to the world of horror as this film is extremely mediocre for 2016.


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