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Friday, January 24, 2003
Horror-movie cliches are the death of 'Darkness Falls'
"Darkness Falls" is a joyless amalgam of horror movie cliches, none used more exhaustively than the false alarm. That's the inevitable moment in every horror film where characters (and the audience) leap in terror when something unexpected pops out from the side of the screen.
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Such moments of brief, undiluted fright are greeted with an unmistakable grin when used sparingly: Everyone loves to be scared. But "Darkness Falls" packs in 75 minutes (sans ending credits) of these moments until the pace grows wearying.
Like most contemporary horror fodder, the action stems from urban legend. Here, the seaside town of Darkness Falls is haunted by 150 years of unsolved child murders. It boils down to this: an old woman was lynched after townsfolk became irked over her exchanging copper coins for children's last baby teeth, leaving her scarred and one angry Tooth Fairy.
Cut to the present. Twentysomething Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley) is haunted by the his mother's murder by you-know-who. Disgraced, he returns home to help high school sweetheart, Caitlin (Emma Caulfield, from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), whose hospitalized younger brother, Michael (Lee Cormie), has episodes that parallel Kyle's morbid past.
What ensues is a movie that falls victim to what late film critic Pauline Kael described as being edited for the maximum number of showings possible, where market value dictates that harried action supplants any sense of clever, coherent narrative. Everything here is recycled, from the creepy pretitle sequence, inexorable chases, the moment when the killer appears to be dead but isn't and of course, the ending that leaves the door open to future installments. But any sequels likely will go straight to video.
The performers service underwritten parts with little gusto, while the technical credits, from the extreme close-up photography, overburdening music and mechanical special effects, aren't worthy of a TV movie. Newcomer director Jonathan Liebesman renders very little atmosphere or nuance, and excessively channels other, better movies rather than creating anything fresh.
Note: The film has been absurdly rated PG-13, meaning it will bore adults who have lost their baby teeth and be entirely inappropriate for those who still have theirs.
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