Like Sherlock Holmes's famous clue of the dog who didn't bark, it was what
didn't bother me in DARKNESS FALLS that best sums up my feelings about this
completely disposable and totally unoriginal horror movie. Sitting directly
behind me in one of the handicapped seats was a woman with a baby in a stroller
next to her. Although the baby would whimper, coo, babble and sometimes scream,
it never bothered me or distracted from my viewing pleasure because I was having
none. Oh yes, I forgot to mention how considerate the mother was. She had
kindly brought along a nice big rattle for his amusement.
The movie concerns an evil tooth fairy that has been plaguing the town of
Darkness Falls for one hundred and fifty years. A killer who can only be
stopped with light, she comes to visit children when their last tooth falls out.
As the movie opens, a boy named Kyle has just said good-bye to his very last
baby tooth. Which means ...
The story is filled with the standard horror movie clich‚s. Things go bump in
the shadows of the night. Characters do stupid things no matter how many times
they are warned not to. If you've been told that there is a monster -- or even
just a garden-variety criminal -- in your house, would you sneak around in the
dark or would you turn the lights on?
If you've seen one bad horror movie like this one, you've seen them all, so
there is no reason to waste your money seeing another one. The horror genre
isn't dead yet even if schlock movies like this one keep trying to bury it.
DARKNESS FALLS runs 1:25. It is rated PG-13 for "terror and horror images, and
brief language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
Copyright © 2003 Steve Rhodes
