Release Date: January 24, 2003
Starring: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro, Sullivan Stapleton, Steve Mouzakis
Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman
Written by: John Fasano, James Vanderbilt, Joseph Harris
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (terror and horror images, brief language)
Having expended itself in the 1990’s, a decade later the horror genre is running on fumes, and getting writers and studio execs to come up with new and scary villainous creatures is almost as hard as pulling teeth. In Darkness Falls that’s almost literally true: author Joseph Harris concocted the story of a woman known as the Tooth Fairy who comes to terrorize the small town of Darkness Falls.
While the idea -- like most horror stories -- has some ingenuity, the creepy effect of the film -- like most horror movies -- rests on harsh edits, bad lighting, and a lot of dead people. The best horror films have a gigantic payoff in the end, or at least get the audience on the edge of their seats the whole time, or sometimes both -- but neither is true of Falls.
The story goes like this: In the 1850’s in Darkness Falls, Matilda Dixon was an odd character who paid children for the teeth that they lost and was thus nicknamed the Tooth Fairy. However, Matilda is badly injured in a fire that brutally deforms her face, making her sensitive to light, and thereafter she can only go out at night wearing a mask. Then, after two children go missing, she is blamed for their disappearance and hanged for the crime -- but when her horrific face is shown to the light, she lays a curse on Darkness Falls that whoever sees her face afterwards will face her wrath.
Now, in the present day, Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley) can hardly sleep and must stay in the light because Matilda’s ghost still haunts him from when he saw her after he lost his last baby tooth. At the same time, a childhood friend of Kyle’s, Cat Greene (Emma Caulfield), is beginning to have a similar problem with her 9-year-old brother Michael (Lee Cormie). Cat enlists Kyle’s help, convincing him to come back to Darkness Falls and solve the problem of Matilda Dixon once and for all.
Like I said, horror stories usually start out with a good idea. A homicidal Tooth Fairy may sound a little bizarre, but ultimately, it has the potential to be scary. And Matilda is rarely seen, another characteristic of classic horror movie villains, so the payoff can be satisfying.
Perhaps the best part of the movie is the use of a moaning sound to signal Matilda is near, much like the now-famous Michael Myers’s theme in the Halloween films. (Matilda’s facial disfiguration also invokes classic horror figures like Myers, Freddy Kruger of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, and Jason Voorhees, of the Friday the 13th movies.)
Unfortunately, the movie is poorly executed. Harris wrote and directed a 2001 movie titled Tooth Fairy as well, so this would appear to be a “bigger” low-budget attempt at bringing his story to mass audiences. The script here was co-written by John Fasano and James Vanderbilt, but it’s hard to see what they may have added -- other than the shameless dialogue typical of low-budget horror flicks.
While the horror genre isn’t really supposed to be about character development, it does help the films become more entertaining if the audiences care about the players. But in Darkness Falls, the characters walk around with expectedly empty emotions. Chaney Kley and Emma Caulfield, a pair of television actors, fit well in the identity of a low-budget thriller, thanks to the success of the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer series, but they do little to inspire audience interest. And Lee Cormie, playing the genre's now-token role of a little boy who sees dead people, certainly can’t contend with the ghost of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense.
If anything, Darkness Falls follows a pattern found in 2001’s Jeepers Creepers, taking relatively unknown television actors and setting them against a supernatural serial killer. Both films had low production values and neglected the characters from the outset -- not exactly the kind of material that Hollywood should be recycling in this genre. Unless you have a weak stomach for these things, it’s likely you won’t be very frightened. Rather, Darkness is just another hokey scarefest with a sequel (or prequel, the way things are going nowadays) on the way. When the movie starts and darkness falls, you’ll sleep well.
all contents © 2003 Michael J. Eiff