Darkness Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Darkness Blu-ray Movie Review

Not much different from the average "scary house with a dark secret" movie.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 9, 2012

The fear of the dark.

What's scarier than the dark? How about a scary movie playing in the dark? Or maybe a mediocre scary movie about the dark? Cinema has long made use of darkness and the unknown, the monster under the bed, the dread looming in the shadows, the fear of the unseen as an antagonist against the light that is the soul of good people thrust into terrible situations, all of which play a part in director Jaume Balagueró's ([Rec]) Darkness, a serviceable Horror picture about a family's brush with evil within the walls of an old house with a terrible secret, a bloody past, and a potentially deadly future. The movie delivers modest scary movie atmospherics, tells a decent story, and offers up a welcome twist in the final act, but none of it elevates the movie very far beyond the "meh" range of the awful-to-meh-to-good-to-great scale. It will scare the timid and disinterest veteran Horror aficionados; Darkness doesn't really distinguish itself from other, similar pictures, merely going through the motions and destined to become lost in the jumble of "dark house" movies that are usually no more than a blip on the cinema radar screen.

Something's not right here.

An American family -- father Mark (Iain Glen, The Iron Lady), mother Maria (Lena Olin, The Ninth Gate), daughter Regina (Anna Paquin, X-Men), and son Paul (first-time actor Stephan Enquist) -- has recently moved into a Spanish country estate. The house is in some disrepair, but beyond a recurring electrical problem it's nothing Mark can't fix up. The family is slow to unpack, almost as if it doesn't want to be there. But there the family is, and as it turns out, the house isn't taking too kindly to their presence. Things begin to unravel rather quickly. Mark succumbs to a series of debilitating seizures, delusions, and other maladies. Young Paul is suddenly terrified of the darkness, believing that there's a force underneath his bed, leading him to color a series of brutal drawings depicting six children with their throats violently slashed. Regina questions these events and is led to believe that there may be a dark past defining the house's destiny. It turns out she's right. She learns of a ritual, meant to coincide with a rare solar eclipse, where seven children must be slaughtered at the hand of someone who loves them. She discovers that the last ritual went awry, and one of the children escaped. Now, with the next eclipse only days away and with a new victim necessary to complete the ritual, Regina must race to ensure that her brother Paul is spared a terrible fate.

Darkness enlightens audiences with a jumpy, shadowy, somewhat creepy open, combining haunting, fearful voiceover dialogue with split-second, blood-splattered images. But honestly, that's near a high point for the movie. Darkness never really gets into the truly generic creepy stuff of missing eyes and blank faces and all of that usual nonsense. It makes use of the supernatural, but adds a few human elements to it, which does lend a bit more credence to it, a "it didn't have to be this way" sort of vibe that does make it a little more frightening on a fundamental level. But the movie just doesn't muster up all that much beyond those brief images, which repeat in style throughout the film. Add the usual moans and groans and the creepy record playing nursery music and cobwebs and shadows and dust, and Darkness just doesn't find the clout to elevate to a higher level. Then again, these sorts of movies rarely seem to find much novelty, dramatic intensity, or thematic importance, and what happens in Darkness really is par for the course. The film does conjure up a decent third act twist or two that keep audiences interested and the story evolving, but there's nothing earth-shattering here, no reason to watch beyond something to occupy time or scare up a few goosebumps on a cold, dark night.

The plot is functional even if not particularly robust, and the atmosphere is fine if not generic. Those elements shape the movie to a point, but it's the secondary pieces that keep Darkness down a notch or two from the above-average films of its kind. The characters are forgettable and bland, not particularly likable and crafted to do little more than move the story forward rather than breathe real, genuine life into it. Beyond caring for them out of raw humanity, there's no reason to wish good or ill towards them; they merely populate the movie rather than add any dramatic elements to it. The performances are merely acceptable, not totally lifeless and flat but not particularly evocative. That's due in large part to a script that fails to shape them much beyond general character traits and the arcs they take throughout the movie. Anna Paquin suffices in the lead. Her performance nicely reflects the character's arc, becoming somewhat unhinged and certainly more fearful the more she digs into the past and begins seeing a picture of the future. Otherwise, Darkness seems fairly stock, not at all a bad movie but certainly not one worth remembering, a movie that doesn't differentiate itself in the least from others of its kind in a sub-genre that, it seems, fails more so than any other to evolve or improve or show signs of brilliance.

Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Darkness features a rather nice-looking Blu-ray transfer. Generally, this image features sound, stable, crisply-defined details, the kind that won't knock the socks off of veteran Blu-ray viewers but that at least appear with a degree of film-like accuracy. While nothing appears positively intricate, faces and clothes and the worn and dusty places and things around the house appear with dependable, durable, consistent proficiency. There's a lack of absolute complexity, but this is a rather good image for an Echo Bridge title. Likewise, colors aren't blindingly vibrant, but they are not meant to be. The palette appears even and accurate to the film's particular style. Black levels are fine, as are flesh tones. The image does feature very light spotting and speckling as well as a hint of banding across a few surfaces, but nothing to heavily distract from the movie. All told, this is a pretty nice transfer from Echo Bridge.

Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Darkness features a pair of English-language audio tracks, neither particularly noteworthy or successful. First, there's a DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack that lacks range but offers a crispness and fullness that the competing Dolby Digital 5.1 track cannot match. The DTS track still has its moments of mushiness, with occasionally uneven dialogue that's poorly centered, but the track delivers more satisfying and stable music and effects elements compared to the 5.1 offering. Though not immersive, DTS track does offer a nice drenching rain and booming thunder sequence, a potent rattling bus, and quality little atmospherics that, even limited to the front, play firmly and clearly. On the other hand, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track does allow some elements to drift into the back, whether musical, environmental, or echoing dialogue when appropriate. The tradeoff is a track that's a touch more shallow and absent a steady vigor and energy. Clarity and sonic accuracy are bumped down a notch, too. Ultimately, listeners will have to choose the slightly more immersive track or the slightly better-defined track. The smart money is on the DTS offering, but not by a wide margin.

Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Darkness contains two forgettable extras.

• Darkness: Illuminated (480p, 3:54): Cast and crew discuss the plot, what makes the story scary, and making use of in-camera special effects.
• TV Trailer (1080p, 0:32): A trailer for the film's DVD release.

Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Darkness moves along from beginning to end with some intensity, a nice and twisty third act, a decent atmosphere, and a fair lead performance. But it doesn't really separate from the pack, either. It's merely another "spooky house with a secret, an evil past, and a deadly future" movie. It's a worthwhile time killer and a good representation of the sub-genre midpoint -- beyond which few films really excel -- but not worth much more than a boring evening watch. Echo Bridge's Blu-ray release of Darkness features good video, a couple of passable soundtracks, and two throwaway extras. Rent it when nothing else looks promising.