Darkness Falls (2003)


REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10


This movie had so many titles, it's hard to keep track. I remember when it was listed under the title Tooth Fairy, but apparently it’s had 5 titles. I guess they couldn’t seem to make up their minds. Oh well. This movie sparked my interest a little when it was in theatres, but I never got around to checking it. It sure didn't take long for it to come to DVD though. That alone pretty much shows what kinda movie we're dealin' with here.

The story is about an old woman that was nice to the local kids, especially after they lost their last tooth. Two kids go missing and the townsfolk blame the woman. She's killed and her vengeful spirits now haunts the town. It's said that when you lose your last tooth she comes for it in the night. If you try to get a glimpse of her, she'll kill you. A boy is visited by her one night after losing his tooth. He peeks, but somehow makes it free. Many years passed and she's still after him. His only way to survive is to stay in the light, because the spirit cannot stand the light. Since then the boy moved out of town and is now a man. He ends up returning to the town when he gets a phone call from a friend needing his help. Now it's time to end it for all.

This movie was basically a mixture of many other horror films I've seen. One mainly being the recent film, They, because it seemed so similar. Both movies deal with staying out of the dark and since they weren't released too far apart from each other, it just made things worse. When I first saw the trailer for this I thought I was looking at another trailer of They. I really didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would. It was just so damn predictable and annoying at times that I kept thinking to myself "when's this gonna end?" Luckily enough this is an incredibly short film. The running time is recorded at about 85 minutes, but the credits run for a near 11 minutes, so the movie itself is very short.

The movie did have some somewhat tense moments, but overall I didn't find anything scary about it. We see the Tooth Fairy a lot throughout the movie and I think it would’ve been better had we not really seen her as much. It would have made things much scarier. It's said that the studio was not happy with the previous version of the movie, because the Tooth Fairy was only shown at the end, so they went back and got Stan Winston to create a new Fairy which now appears through the whole thing. What a waste. At least the effects weren't bad. The directing was decent and so was the acting. It was cool to see Emma Caulfield to be in a non-Buffy-related project. I always thought she was a nice actress, but I didn't think she fit too well with the character she played in this movie. It seemed like a little Anya wanted to come out. Ah, maybe it's just me.

The look of the Tooth Fairy wasn't bad, but I thought it was kinda funny how an evil spirit had to wear a mask. I always thought that kinda stuff was for living people. Oh well. I would have given the movie a lower-rating, but aside from all the predictability and annoying clichéd scenes, it kept my interest. If you bother to check this movie, be sure to get the DVD, because it has some deleted scenes that I thought should’ve been left in the movie. Maybe it would’ve made it better or at least have the running time of an actual movie. This film had the potential of being good from the start, but the studio had to have it their way and ruin it.

I didn't really like it. Too predictable and cliched. Interesting and had some somewhat tense scenes, but overall unscary. Worth a rent if you got nothing else.
OVERALL: 
I didn't really like it. Too predictable and cliched. Interesting and had some somewhat tense scenes, but overall unscary. Worth a rent if you got nothing else.


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