In the town of "Darkness Falls" when a child loses their last baby tooth, the tooth fairy pays them a visit. But this isn't the sweet tooth fairy we envision, instead it's a vengeful super bitch who will stop at nothing to kill you if you lay eyes on her. When Kyle (Kley) was a youngster he barely escaped a close encounter with the tooth fairy herself and has lived his life in fear (and the light) since. 12 years later Kyle is contacted by an old squeeze, Caitlin (Caulfeild) whose little brother is being terrorized by the old hag and thinks he can save the day or instruct them on how to deal with the bitch or something. Loaded with a bag of flashlights and prescription medication, Kyle sets out to stop her once and for all or something like that. It's all kinda vague.
Darkness Falls can be broken down into 3 parts.
Part 1: The first 20 minutes - Darkness Falls gets started well with a cool montage of burning images that tells the story of a sweet old lady who gave kids a shiny gold coin for their baby teeth. She was dubbed "The Tooth Fairy." After an accident leaves her horribly burned and regulated to stay in the dark (because the sun burns her flesh), two little kids disappear. She is blamed for their disappearance and hung for it, BUT with her dying breathe she vows vengeance on the children of Darkness Falls. The kids show up later and are just fine, D'OH!
After that sweet montage we meet the young Kyle who has just lost his last baby tooth, had his first kiss with a young Caitlin, and has plans to "kick it" with her at the school dance on Friday. Caitlin puts his little baby tooth under his pillow and tells him not to peak when the tooth fairy comes. Of course he doesn't, peeks at the Tooth Fairy, and will never be the same. Those scenes in the young Kyle's house were pretty cool and had me pumped, thinking that Darkness Falls was gonna be a moody, shadowy, and possibly frightening little flick. The first 20 minutes, give or take was pretty sweet. The young love thing was nice (the ghostly little girl from Ghost Ship plays the young Caitlin), the scenes are very well directed by Jonathan Liebesman with cool use of shadow and light, and was actually creepy. I love the way it ended with little Kyle in the bathroom. At that point Darkness Falls had endless possibilities in my book.
Part 2: The ho-hum middle - I learned rather fast that the possibilities of goodness that Darkness Falls created in it's opening got sucked out of the movie rather quickly. The substance here is totally non-existent, the character development is no where to be found, and why were they shooting for cheap laughs instead of cheap scares. The movie turns to the old bag of tricks by throwing plenty of "jump" scares at us that are very stupid. Where'd that cat come from and why the goofy dialogue? Disposable characters show up and get picked off one by one. I thought the tooth fairy just dined on kiddies not burnouts and defense attorneys. Yeesh! What happened? We get some fairly descent action sequences where the Tooth Fairy flies around and chases the protagonists. All mindless, CGI, well photographed fluff, but entertaining none the less. Then we get to the police station siege by the Tooth Fairy that made for a few ok moments and was kinda fun. At this point I was still fine with the film, although the substance was gone, the entertainment value was still high. It was mindless style over substance, then it got worse...
Part 3: The last act, extreme goof, the rolling of eyes, the echo of groans - As Darkness Falls nears it's end, it sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss of stupidity. Good god, this movie just got dumber and dumber 'til the very stupid finale. The horror aspect is totally thrown by the weigh side and they go for more laughs and plenty moments of failed suspense. Then one of the disposable characters mutters the line: "All this for a f--king tooth." That level of self awareness in a bad horror movie can either be seen as witty or a nod to the audience to let them know, if they haven't already figured out, that this movie is NOT GOOD. Yes, all this for a f**king tooth. What was the real message here, surely to God the writers of this movie didn't set out to write a movie like this. I can hear it now, a bunch of morons sitting around a table. "Yes, lets make a horror movie that is totally devoid of all substance. We'll fill it with cheap BOO scares, cheap laughs, and in the end we'll get all ignorant in a lighthouse. Brilliant! But wait, we'll play a cruel joke on the audience and start the movie with high hopes only to laugh in their faces with pure gonzo idiocy."
Darkness Falls is the poster child for how a movie can fall apart before the viewer's very eyes. A movie that had possibilities, only to p*** them away and ultimately be a simple, sometimes entertaining goof fest that is easily forgettable stuff. Not much makes sense, but then again it's probably not suppose to and if it did make any sense in the original screenplay, it was left on the cutting room floor. This a movie devoid of all substance, all character development, and all sense. It's basically a good looking piece of garbage, nothing more nothing (well maybe a little) less. Could this be another case of the studio destroying a horror movie? Possibly. Director Jonathan Liebesman has potential and deserves far better than this. If the movie is a hit, he may get a chance, but if this proves to be a money maker, then the studio has won and will unload more bad horror movies at us as long as throngs of misguided slackers will vacate their trailers for 75 minutes (a long 75 minutes at that) to spend their hard earned SSI money. If Kangaroo Jack can top the box office then anything can happen and we, the human race, is truly in peril. God's mercy on you swine.
Darkness Falls can be broken down into 3 parts.
Part 1: The first 20 minutes - Darkness Falls gets started well with a cool montage of burning images that tells the story of a sweet old lady who gave kids a shiny gold coin for their baby teeth. She was dubbed "The Tooth Fairy." After an accident leaves her horribly burned and regulated to stay in the dark (because the sun burns her flesh), two little kids disappear. She is blamed for their disappearance and hung for it, BUT with her dying breathe she vows vengeance on the children of Darkness Falls. The kids show up later and are just fine, D'OH!
After that sweet montage we meet the young Kyle who has just lost his last baby tooth, had his first kiss with a young Caitlin, and has plans to "kick it" with her at the school dance on Friday. Caitlin puts his little baby tooth under his pillow and tells him not to peak when the tooth fairy comes. Of course he doesn't, peeks at the Tooth Fairy, and will never be the same. Those scenes in the young Kyle's house were pretty cool and had me pumped, thinking that Darkness Falls was gonna be a moody, shadowy, and possibly frightening little flick. The first 20 minutes, give or take was pretty sweet. The young love thing was nice (the ghostly little girl from Ghost Ship plays the young Caitlin), the scenes are very well directed by Jonathan Liebesman with cool use of shadow and light, and was actually creepy. I love the way it ended with little Kyle in the bathroom. At that point Darkness Falls had endless possibilities in my book.
Part 2: The ho-hum middle - I learned rather fast that the possibilities of goodness that Darkness Falls created in it's opening got sucked out of the movie rather quickly. The substance here is totally non-existent, the character development is no where to be found, and why were they shooting for cheap laughs instead of cheap scares. The movie turns to the old bag of tricks by throwing plenty of "jump" scares at us that are very stupid. Where'd that cat come from and why the goofy dialogue? Disposable characters show up and get picked off one by one. I thought the tooth fairy just dined on kiddies not burnouts and defense attorneys. Yeesh! What happened? We get some fairly descent action sequences where the Tooth Fairy flies around and chases the protagonists. All mindless, CGI, well photographed fluff, but entertaining none the less. Then we get to the police station siege by the Tooth Fairy that made for a few ok moments and was kinda fun. At this point I was still fine with the film, although the substance was gone, the entertainment value was still high. It was mindless style over substance, then it got worse...
Part 3: The last act, extreme goof, the rolling of eyes, the echo of groans - As Darkness Falls nears it's end, it sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss of stupidity. Good god, this movie just got dumber and dumber 'til the very stupid finale. The horror aspect is totally thrown by the weigh side and they go for more laughs and plenty moments of failed suspense. Then one of the disposable characters mutters the line: "All this for a f--king tooth." That level of self awareness in a bad horror movie can either be seen as witty or a nod to the audience to let them know, if they haven't already figured out, that this movie is NOT GOOD. Yes, all this for a f**king tooth. What was the real message here, surely to God the writers of this movie didn't set out to write a movie like this. I can hear it now, a bunch of morons sitting around a table. "Yes, lets make a horror movie that is totally devoid of all substance. We'll fill it with cheap BOO scares, cheap laughs, and in the end we'll get all ignorant in a lighthouse. Brilliant! But wait, we'll play a cruel joke on the audience and start the movie with high hopes only to laugh in their faces with pure gonzo idiocy."
Darkness Falls is the poster child for how a movie can fall apart before the viewer's very eyes. A movie that had possibilities, only to p*** them away and ultimately be a simple, sometimes entertaining goof fest that is easily forgettable stuff. Not much makes sense, but then again it's probably not suppose to and if it did make any sense in the original screenplay, it was left on the cutting room floor. This a movie devoid of all substance, all character development, and all sense. It's basically a good looking piece of garbage, nothing more nothing (well maybe a little) less. Could this be another case of the studio destroying a horror movie? Possibly. Director Jonathan Liebesman has potential and deserves far better than this. If the movie is a hit, he may get a chance, but if this proves to be a money maker, then the studio has won and will unload more bad horror movies at us as long as throngs of misguided slackers will vacate their trailers for 75 minutes (a long 75 minutes at that) to spend their hard earned SSI money. If Kangaroo Jack can top the box office then anything can happen and we, the human race, is truly in peril. God's mercy on you swine.
