And Soon The Darkness (2010)
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| Roadshow | Region 4, PAL | 2.40:1 (16:9 enhanced) | English DD 2.0 | 87 minutes |
(Full Specs)
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| Studio: |
Roadshow (Australia) |
| Region: |
4 |
| Format: |
PAL |
| Aspect Ratio: |
2.40:1 (16:9 enhanced) |
| Audio Options: |
English Dolby Digital 2.0, English Audio Descriptive 2.0 |
| Subtitles: |
English (FHI) |
| Running Time: |
87 minutes |
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| The Movie |
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| Credits |
Director: Marcos Efron
Starring: Amber Heard, Karl Urban, Odette Yustman
Screenplay: Jennifer Derwingson, Marcos Efron
Country: USA |
| External Links |
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Whilst I don't have a problem with remakes I'll admit that they don't always work, however I am always willing to give another one a try! Sadly though, it doesn't always turn out for the best, and And Soon The Darkness fits into that category.
And Soon The Darkness tells of two friends Stephanie (Amber Heard of Drive Angry) and her friend Ellie (Odette Yustman of The Unborn) who are on a cycling tour of Argentina, separate from a tour group so they can do their own thing, but when a conversation between the two becomes an argument, Stephanie storms off. After cooling down, she returns only to find that her friend has gone missing. She tries the local police but finds no real hope from the seemingly bumbling pencil pusher who more or less tells her that everything will be alright, but Stephanie decides that is not OK and begins to investigate the disappearance herself. She finds though she is being shadowed by a mysterious stranger Michael (Doom's Karl Urban) who has a secret that may be the key to finding Ellie.
Whenever a remake is announced, usually the first cry is 'Why?' and I have to echo those remarks here. The first why is why make a film that remains generally unknown; it doesn't have the cache that comes with a Dawn of the Dead or a Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake so it can't benefit from the anticipation or free internet advertising in the form of fandom crybabying on forums. The other why is why do a film that has been done better, and more appealing to the horror/ thriller fandom with other recent films like Turistas, which has more or less the same plot?
Films of this manner need to have more of a sense of alienation, desolation and dread, but this didn't have any of that. It did, however, have prettier girls riding better push bikes, so there's one point in its favour. |
| Video |
| The film is presented in 2.40:1 and is a beautiful image. The film starts with lush colors but as it goes on, the film gets darker and more monochromatic. |
| Audio |
| Strangely the film is presented only in Dolby Digital 2.0, but it is decent track. 5.1 audio options are available on many overseas releases. |
| Extra Features |
The disc opens with a few trailers: My Soul To Take, 22 Bullets and McGruber. Once the disc opens the menu you are presented with the actual extras... Which are one trailer for the film. The tragedy is there are some awesome locations in this film, an entire burnt down town being one, so a doco about even just that would have been great or even a travelogue on the Argentinian locations, which in general were beautiful.
Another real shame with this film is the person who wrote the blurb on the back of the DVD didn't seem to actually pay attention to the story, as the actresses names in the synopsis are reversed: a small sin, but a sin I find unforgivable from a company as big as Roadshow. |
| The Verdict |
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It's not that this film is a bad film, it's beautifully shot, the actresses in it are lovely and the acting is pretty good but it just - and I hate saying these words - isn't as good as the original. It's empty, and at no point does the landscape feel as alien or the tension feel as thick as the original. That being said, even as a film unto its own, it is poorly paced and that is the other disappointing factor of it.
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