I know I've reviewed this one before at some point, but I didn't do it last October, so I'm doing it again. I searched and searched and searched but couldn't come up with a decent flick I felt like watching this evening. I feel a little under the weather as well so maybe that's a contributing factor, but anyway, let's get to the movie.
Darkness Falls (2003) is a story about a kind, gentle woman who traded coins for the lost teeth of the town's children, a woman who would later become known as the tooth fairy. Unfortunately, after a horribly disfiguring fire, the woman became withdrawn and distant, and one day, when two children disappeared, blame fell on the old woman. Lynched by the townsfolk, burned to death, she vowed revenge. "That which I took in kindness, I shall forevermore take in vengeance." Or, you know, something sinisterly evil like that. One hundred years later, a ten-year old Kyle loses his last baby tooth, and accidentally catches sight of the spirit of the tooth fairy, which tries to kill him. Apparently, seeing the tooth fairy is a huge no-no. Anyone who catches sight of her, dies horribly. To compound his error, instead of dying quietly in the darkness of the night, Kyle goes and flashes a light in the tooth fairy's face. The tooth fairy hates the light, and never leaves her comforting darkness. Kyle is a little too fast for the tooth fairy,, hiding in the well-lit bathroom. However, the tooth fairy does manage to catch Kyle's mom. Since, obviously, no one is going to believe that the tooth fairy killed Kyle's mom, Kyle goes away to an insane asylum for 7 years when he tries floating that story to the authorities. You'd think even a little boy would know enough not to tell them THAT one. Five years after he gets out of the loony bin, Kyle gets a call from his childhood girlfriend, Caitlin, who he hasn't seen or heard from since the night his mother died. Caitlin has a little brother, it seems, and her little brother has lost his last baby tooth. He's also suddenly developed a crushing fear of the dark. The dark that the tooth fairy dwells in...
I really love this movie. The acting is exceptional, for one thing. The actors aren't exactly well known talents, but they do their best. There is maybe one funny line in this entire movie, when someone rhetorically asks Kyle if he's crazy for suggesting they move through the darkness to get somewhere, and Kyle says "Yea, a little!" without missing a beat, referring to his stint in psychiatric care. I laughed. But the rest of the movie was serious, tense, with a lot of atmosphere and suspense. I can't even say it was a slow build up, because it didn't feel that way to me. Perfectly paced, if you want my opinion. Just the right amount of character building mixed in with terror and action. Plus, more of a monster movie than horror, which, I always enjoy. Not even sure where you'd classify the tooth fairy at this point, spirit? Monster? undead? Who knows. To the Ghostbusters, it's maybe a "full torso free floating apparition." lol
I saw this last Halloween, so very rewatchable. Love the characters, too. Police force that suspects Kyle is just the resident psycho, a typical sneaky lawyer type, and even a damn bar fight with a drunken lout. Where do they get these people? lol I do not understand the concept of a bar brawl, honestly. You see it in movies all the time, but I have been in many many bars and never once has there been a brawl. If there's a bar brawl, three of three things have to happen. One, there has to be a violent drunk present. It doesn't happen that often, but there's always the possibility. I have even been a violent drunk on rare occasions, when I have had too much to drink too fast. Thankfully, I have noticed it immediately when it's popped up due to the uncharacteristic anger that comes with it, and stopped it in it's tracks. At most, I raised my voice a bit. But, I guess that means it can happen to anyone. Two, I don't know how often you notice how relaxed other drunks are when you're drunk, but I do. It's like there's this big buzz going around and everyone is feeling it and everyone just sort of knows everyone else is feeling it too. There's an exceptional amount of civility between people when they're totally soused, or at least, that's what I've come to notice when I was drunk, and that whole "we're both drunk, isn't this fun?" thing has to completely fail to calm down the situation. Three, the bouncers have to completely fail to do their jobs. Now, the first thing happens rarely. The second thing happens rarely, and the third thing, well, let's just say that if there's a lot of brawls in a bar, you get better bouncers. Or more of them. So all three of these things have to occur in order for a bar brawl to happen. And yet, there's a small one in Darkness Falls! lol Which isn't really a knock against the movie, it's just funny that one happens, and the way that it happens is so uncomfortable for both me as the viewer, and for Kyle, it's just almost funny. Until, well... bad things happen. Then it's not so funny.
Kyle's love interest was pretty nice, too. Emma Caulfield (Anya from Buffy) plays Kyle's love interest, Caitlin. I've always found her reasonably easy on the eyes. Emily Browning, interestingly enough, plays the young Caitlin, who later went on to play in the Uninvited and Sucker Punch. I think all the actors in this movie did a good job, but it's always good when the actresses are actually good looking. No offense to the, perhaps less attractive actresses out there, to be polite, who are probably better actresses in general, but it's always nice to see some eye candy in a horror movie, you know? What can I say, I'm a guy. :-)
That's it for tonight. This post was quite late, as I have had a very busy, chaotic evening. When the chinese say, may you live in interesting times, they don't mean it as a compliment or well-wishing. lol Til tomorrow night then. October 31st, now. Merry Samhain, or Happy Halloween, if you want to be all modern about it. :-)
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