Review of Darkness Falls

Introduction

In a year where horror has made somewhat of a strong comeback, Darkness Falls hauled in an impressive gross during its period in theatres & shot straight to number one spot at the U.S box-office. Hardly surprising, when you consider the terrific trailer prior to its release, which sold you on just about everything you`d expect to be sold on in a horror movie.

In a similar vein, recent hits such as The Blair Witch Project & the Ring all had a mythology as the foundation of their stories, which also played a huge part in the marketing. Darkness Falls continues this sequence, as the film focuses on a village, where 150 years ago, its people wrongly accused a local member of the community, to being the cause of the disappearance of two children. The woman`s name was Matilda, also known as `The Tooth Fairy`, as she would reward any child with a gold coin, who brought her any of their lost teeth. She was condemned & lynched for the crime, and brutally executed.

I`ve seen a lot of big horror blockbusters this year, but Darkness Falls was one I missed out on. Needless to say, after the trailer, I was pretty psyched for this.

Video

The picture comes at us with terrific sharpness and detail, but on occasions tends to look a little soft. Apart from that, there aren`t any real issues evident, it`s all very crisp & clean with very little grain.

Audio

The soundtrack is terrific & serves as the outstanding aspect of this release. The soundtrack is at its best, when the movie`s at its most subtle. The errie sounds of the Tooth Fairy in the opening sequence are truly disturbing, and likewise when her screams are heard towards the end of the film.

Features

The featurette entitled "The Legend of Matilda Dixon" deals with the inspiration for the movie. I thought it`d actually set the tone for the film quite nicely, it`s very creepy & deals with the origins of the Tooth Fairy. There`s the run-of-the-mill `making of` featurette which is just compiled film clips with some very un-interesting narration.

The deleted scenes, with the odd exception, are pretty uneventful. There`s an alternate ending in there, from which I couldn`t spot any differences from that & the original climax of the film.

There`s two commentaries, one from the filmmaking crew, and the other from the writing team. They`re both very contrasting, with the directorial side of things providing a more banter approach to things, whilst the other track is a lot more stern & professional.

Conclusion

Darkness Falls starts strongly, with a terrific introduction of the villainess role in a tense & immensely eerie scene. Sadly, the movie takes off into a whole different direction & opts for cheap scares, rather than relying on suspense. That said, it`s not the disaster many would have you believe, and will definitely serve you well if your looking for a cheap horror flick to woo some innocent young girl with on a night on the couch.

The extra features are a little above sub-standard, whilst the presentation impresses. Horror buffs will have seen it all before, but since when does that matter in this starved genre? It`s certainly no worse or better than Cabin Fever, Freddy Vs Jason or Jeepers Creepers 2.