Credits

Director: Jonathan Liebesman Starring: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro Screenplay: Joe Harris, John Fasano Country: USA

Darkness Falls begins with a pretty cool intro about the legend of the movie's tooth fairy. A reclusive, scarred woman collects kids' teeth, and gives 'em money. One day some kids go missing, the woman gets blamed and hung, but then the kids show up. Oops. The woman becomes the tooth fairy, and still doesn't want anyone to see her horrible visage, so if they catch a glimpse of her it's bye-bye time. But, because she was so sensitive to light while alive, she still can't get illuminated or she'll be hurting. Unless, evidently, the light is generated by lightning. The legend doesn't make much sense, given that she's tormenting kids when it was adults that did her in, but what urban legend is completely logical? Aside from that one about the Hook Hand guy, naturally.

After the intro is a good scene pertaining to a kid worrying about his recently lost tooth being picked up that night. The scene plays on childhood fears very well, capturing the dread of pulling down the sheet you're hiding under and encountering something that shouldn't be there. The scene is a little too long, and repeats itself a bit, but is overall quite effective. It culminates with the child hiding in a shower, and pulling down the curtain in what I thought was a nod to Psycho, but the commentary reveals it was homage to Signs. I guess there really aren't enough people paying tribute to M. Night Shamalamadingdong. Then the movie cuts to 12 years later, where a childhood friend of the boy from the opening scene has found her younger brother in the same situation. Really, you should just stop the movie once the initial attack scene is over, 'cause the rest isn't that great.

The problem is the film starts out akin to Candyman, but ultimately lacks the visceral punch of that film, and plays more to the M crowd, complete with tons of jump scares. This leaves the dramatics and the horror much less engrossing than, say, Candyman. The film would've faired better with better performances, because a few are really flat. The child at least has the excuse that he's desperately trying to mask an Australian accent, but I don't know what the adults have to blame. Occasionally a funny line will sneak into the script, but the only humorous bit I really liked was two cops arguing who had to go outside to check on a power outage. The climax is terrible, and features one of the worst groan-inducing one-liners in recent memory. The film NEVER regains the tension it builds in the opening scene, and even that section is over long.