Darkness has fallen and it can't get up.
Darkness Falls (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:125
Fresh:10
Rotten:115
Average Rating:3.2/10
Consensus: A derivative movie where the scares are few and things don't make much sense.
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis:
For the past 150 years, the legend of Matilda Dixon, "the Tooth Fairy," has hung over the town of Darkness Falls like a dark cloud. After being unjustly accused of a heinous crime, the kindly old...
For the past 150 years, the legend of Matilda Dixon, "the Tooth Fairy," has hung over the town of Darkness Falls like a dark cloud. After being unjustly accused of a heinous crime, the kindly old woman was savagely slaughtered by a mad rabble one night, and there are those who say her vengeful spirit hovers over the town, just waiting to pounce on anyone who sees her in the dark.
It happened to young Kyle. One night he saw Matilda and, though he managed to escape her evil clutches, his mother was brutally murdered.
Or was it just a hallucination?
Haunted by his painful memories of that night, and plagued by guilt, Kyle (Chaney Kley) has never allowed himself to be in the dark since. One day, he is summoned back to town by his childhood sweetheart Caitlin (Emma Caulfield), whose nine-year-old brother Michael (Lee Cormie) is having the same nightmares that drove Kyle to the brink of madness.
When he returns, however, Kyle realizes that Matilda’s evil spirit was no figment of his imagination. She is real and extremely dangerous. And if she catches him in the dark again, her horrible, scarred face will be the last thing he ever sees.
Revolution Studios presents A Distant Corners/Blue Star Pictures Production, Darkness Falls, distributed by Columbia Pictures. Starring Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield and Lee Cormie. The film is directed by Jonathan Liebesman. The screenplay is by John Fasano & James Vanderbilt & Joe Harris from a story by Joe Harris. The producers are John Hegeman, John Fasano, William Sherak and Jason Shuman. The executive producers are Derek Dauchy and Lou Arkoff. Dan Laustsen is the director of photography. The production designer is George Liddle. The film is edited by Steve Mirkovich, A.C.E. and Tim Alverson. The music is by Brian Tyler. Creature Designed and Created by Stan Winston Studio.
Darkness Falls is rated PG-13 for terror and horror images, and brief language.
Starring: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro
Starring: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro, Kestie Morassi, Alannah Oliver, Joshua Anderson
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Screenwriter: Joseph Harris, John Fasano, John Vanderbilt
Producer: John Hegeman, William Sherak, John Fasano, Jason Shuman
Composer: Brian Tyler
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Reviews for Darkness Falls
Irritating sound effects, cheap scare tactics and a comically bad script all add up to the year's first senseless cinematic attack on the senses.
Hoping for a good scare while watching this mess really is like pulling teeth.
Darkness Falls banks on the type of psychological thrills that made old-fashioned horror films a hoot.
A quick and cheap horror flick that will come and go in less time than it takes for you to finish reading this review.
The tagline reads, "Evil Rises. Darkness Falls," but they clearly forgot the third caveat: "Slumber Ensues."
While it took three screenwriters to come up with Darkness Falls' countless variations on 'Stay out of the dark!,' many more may have been necessary to provide an interesting plot or developed character.
The only thing scary is reading the credits and realizing that there were three paid screenwriters whose combined IQs could only create something as brainless as Darkness Falls.
Darkness Falls is a sorrowful testament to just how little in the way of talent, thought or even concept is needed for a movie to get made these days.
Despite a few suitably creepy moments early on, the film quickly settles into a rapid-fire cutting style that renders much of the action incoherent.
What's supposed to rattle us as a bout of simulated night terror, comes off more as an acute episode of extreme nearsightedness.
How this painfully terrible film (even by January standards) got a theatrical release is beyond me.
The filmmakers are more in the dark than the one-dimensional characters that fill this chilled chiller.
Depending exclusively on countless endeavors of the past to emit its energy, the picture would serve as a worthwhile experience only to those who have never seen a horror movie in their life.
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