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Darkness Falls (Special Edition)

Darkness Falls (Special Edition)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Tooth Fairy looks great, but 'Falls is Toothless
Review: "Darkness Falls" is that most disappointing of bad movies: an ambitious failure that retains a shell of what could have been a truly terrifying film. There is a nasty, padding, shadow-haunted things-that-go-bump-in-the-night horror tale at the core of "Darkness Falls", and it puts in an appearance in the movie's taut first 15 minutes (and occasionally leers thereafter): in those minutes, "Darkness Falls" is able to terrify---but sadly, it's downhill from there.

That's a shame, because "Darkness Falls" could easily have been a classic. The heart of "Darkness Falls" is a dark fable, presented in the chilly opening credits with a series of shifting, melting daguerreotypes. The Tooth Fairy of legend is the screeching revenant of long-dead Matilda Dixon. Years before in the movie's eponymous town, Dixon had been a kindly old woman who loved to bake cookies for the town children, and who left them candies and coins for their baby teeth.

After a fire leaves her face severely burned and disfigured, she takes to leaving her goodies for the children at night, creeping around the sleeping town in a porcelain mask. When two children disappear, the townsfolk seize Dixon and hang her; only later is it discovered the old woman was innocent. In return, Dixon's revenant curses the town, and vows to kill any unlucky tyke who peeks while she's taking a baby tooth left beneath a pillow.

Protagonist Kyle, as a child, peeks and sees the Tooth Fairy,who in the movie's terrifying opening sequence kills his mother. Fast forward 20 years, and Kyle is still fleeing the Tooth Fairy, forced to live in a reclusive existence in a room where staggered lights dispel the shadows.

Kyle is called back to "Darkness Falls" by childhood sweetheart Caitlin (played blandly by first-time actress Emma Caulfield),whose little brother is suffering from the same night terrors that plagued Kyle as a child. Surprise!---the little boy is being stalked by the Tooth Fairy, and the rest of the film is a dispiriting, boring, heavy-action chase movie, which utterly ruins the promise of the film.

The acting is equally uninspired: Chaney Kley (who plays Kyle), despite a name designed for horror flicks, sleepwalks through his role, and Emma Caulfield is just there. Lee Cormie and the talented young Emily Browning (who played the diabolic child in "Ghost Ship") do fine jobs as terrified kids, but they don't have much to work with here. The only plum acting comes from the Tooth Fairy (played by first-timer Antony Burrows), but the kudos really go to Stan Winston studios, which has taken pains to create another fine creature.

And really, Stan Winston's creature makes this otherwise generic yawner shine, at least for a few minutes. The Tooth Fairy is a genuinely terrifying apparation: the legend of the decrepit, murderous crone is spooky enough on its own, but that's nothing compared to the darkened, shadowy thing that slithers sideways along walls, flutters along darkened ceilings and in the tops of trees, and croaks and wheezes as it crawls up over its victim. The porcelain mask is another nice touch, particularly as its shining blandness underscores the wildness of the feral eyes flashing beneath.

There are flashes, tiny nuggets, of a truly evil horror film that packs some incredibly scary punches for a PG-13 movie. The legend of Dixon is very creepy, and the opening credits, from the stentorian narration to the amber-lit woodcuts to the peeling picture of Matilda Dixon, suggests something monstrous and horrible.

Sadly, the movie doesn't live up to the startling special effects or dreamy cinematography. The best horror films are painted on a palette of silence, and that which is barely seen----or just glimpsed---is far more terrifying than a monster that strides into the light.

Sadly, after its opening sequences, there isn't a quiet or dreadful moment in "Darkness Falls": it has more chases and gunfights than "Bad Boys" or "The Rock". For an action movie, this would be par for the course, but it destroys the finely tuned atmosphere a horror film needs to work.

Finally, why weren't the alternate sequences and extra footage included, particularly the horrific image of the tooth fairy floating over a horrified nurse? There is a claustrophobic, deadly game of peek-a-boo that recalls the legend of the Medusa, and that, had it been included, would certainly have made this movie far more effective (and boosted it up to three stars).

The omission of these scenes tilts the balance of "Darkness Falls" to action, not horror, and that certainly doesn't help the movie, which could have been a nail-biting classic but ends up toothless.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: pure, unadultarated garbage.
Review: Sat through the first 30 minutes of this way below par hollywood standard aimed at teens rubbish. Wouldn't call it a horror, definetley horrible!! Skipped to end for predictable finish. There are some great horrors out there, this aint one of them!

Ridiculous plot about scary tooth fairy, acting and screenplaying embarresingly bad. Hated it!

Rather watch "Bride of the Monster" anytime, now that's a movie :)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Terrible
Review: Had a promising opening then just got worse and worse. but c'mon seriously who are we kidding anyway. A killer tooth fairy give me a break Hollywood was really reaching on this stupid as* blunder. To make a long story short this movie sucks, im glad a buddy of mine got it for me because if i went to the theaters or bought it on DVD somebody would have gotten a serious as* kickin

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Unoriginal and uninspired ...
Review: Some genuinely tense moments are scattered though an otherwise run-of-the-mill horror movie.

Still though, it's not all bad. It's adequately acted. Don't get me wrong, nobody's winning any awards, but I wouldn't say anyone phoned it in. As I stated earlier, there are a couple moments that'll make you jump.

The real benefit though, is that it's rated PG-13. A studio finally saw an advantage to cutting out some of the gore and language, thus widening their audience to include a young crowd.

I know that most horror fans aren't going to give this film the time of day; but any parents out there that need a rental for a sleepover should give this an extra look. If the kids want a scary movie for the night, they may be able to rest a little easier grabbing a movie that still fits the bill but has a lighter rating.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Darkness falls short
Review: Whenever I see a horror movie get the PG-13 rating I generally rush out to see it. It's rare that a horror film can get away with scaring an audience at anything less than an R rating.
Maybe its because I've grown up on horror films, but I'm getting really finicky about scary movies. There's a certain level of quality that I expect and I am constantly let down. I suppose that a movie where the villain is the tooth fairy should be obviously low quality, but I had hoped that they could put a new and scary twist on the classic legend that might actually be good. I assumed wrong.
I'll give credit to its special effects, but the poor plot, bad acting, and cheesy "we're going to die" dialogue played into far too many horror stereotypes for this film to be even remotely enjoyable for me.
I'm sick of the "Boo!" type scares. I want a film with a deeply psychological story, and an aroma of mystery. Had I written this story I would have played on the lead characters psychological condition. I would have left it up in the air whether or not he was the killer, or if the tooth fairy had indeed gone bad. It would have been more interesting.
The ghost showed up way too often, and the kills were uninteresting and boring. There was nothing intense or scary about this film at all. Then again, I'm not sure if the concept was any good to begin with. I suggest passing it up all together, save yourself a few dollars you would waste by seeing this horrible movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Evil is Back With a Vengeance
Review: Shunned by many critics and worthless to some audiences, I found Darkness Falls to be entertaining and at the same time very engrossing and well done. Director Jonathan Liebesman did a fine job of putting together this film. The actors, Chaney Kley and Emma Caulfield, did a great job acting out their parts in this film and accomplished in making them believeable. The Tooth Fairy's story and past was well described in the beginning of the film and her appearences were something to look forward to throughout the entire film.

The DVD is also very well done. The picture is extremely clear and fully detailed. The sound is nice and pleasing to the ear. The special features are also good. They include: filmmakers commentaries, The Legend of Matilda Dixon, The Making of Darkness Falls, deleted scenes, storyboard comparisons, widescreen and fullscreen presentations, and more. Over this DVD is well done and well thought out. This film is rated PG-13 for terror and horror images, and brief language. It is approximately 86 minutes long.

(REVIEW CONTAINS SOME MINOR SPOILERS:SCROLL DOWN FOR REVIEW)

As a young boy, Kyle puts his last tooth under his pillow and is told by his friend not to peek at the tooth fairy. Awaking from a nightmare, he jumps up and sees shadows moving across the wall. When he pulls the covers down he sees a face covered with a porcelin mask and he runs into the bathroom. His mother then comes out of her bedroom to see what the noise is about. As she ventures into her sons room when the son is begging her not to, she sees nothing wrong. Then sees is attacked by the figure and the boy runs and jumps into the tub to hide. That morning the police come and take Kyle away.
Now over twelve years later, Kyle has left the town that never believed him. He also left behind the one person who truly believed him, his childhood girlfriend Caitlin. With evil emerging in Darkness Falls again, Kyle must return to battle the creature that ruined his childhood so many years ago.

This film is surely worth a rental, but you must decide if you want to buy or not because not everyone will enjoy this film.
Hollywood

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The entire movie falls..
Review: ONe of the worst of 2003, I assure you...

Iy fou wanna lose precious time of your life, go ahead. I'll not try to express the bad qualities of this film, to not feel negative about things.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not quite as bad as Wrong Turn, but close.
Review: Darkness Falls (Jason Liebesman, 2003)

Somehow I never got round to reviewing this. Which is okay, because everyone's already said everything I have to say about it, but hey.

This movie is probably going to end a lot of careers before they begin, and could have deleterious effects on a few others. I watched it (well, because I like bad horror movies) mostly because Emma Caulfield is hot and I could never stand enough of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to get a good enough fix. This ain't much better, but at least I could sit through it.

The Tooth Fairy (Antony Burrows in his big-screen debut, also a stuntman for the lead actor: what a surprise, a stuntman playing a monster) is a ghost who's been exceptionally pissed at a small town for a hundred fifty years. Every time a child loses his first tooth, he's visited by the tooth fairy, and if he's not asleep... well, trauma. Or the brutal and bloody murder of one's parents which then gets pinned on the kid, as happened to Kyle Walsh (Legally Blonde's Chaney Kley). Kyle, not surprisingly, split town after that for a while. No one believes in the Tooth Fairy (of course), and they all think Kyle's nuts (of course), but he comes back to town to save the son of his high school sweetheart, Caitlin (Caulfield). He's being stalked by the Tooth Fairy, as well.

First, just to get this out of the way: enough with the new age psychology crap already. Oh, boy, childhood trauma. Yeah, that hasn't been horribly overdone. (No one uses the words "inner child," but they're written all over Kley's face throughout. Try not to puke.)

Second, pretty much everything bad you can say about this movie, well, you can say. The acting is hideous, the pace is off, the jumps out of your seat feel more like you settling your butt deeper into the chair. I was more scared by the last Mary Kate and Ashley movie.

That said, there are two very above-average things about this flick. The special effects are tremendous, as is to be expected; the Tooth Fairy was designed by Stan Winston. Nuff said. Also, the direction has something going for it. Had Liebesman been able to put together as good a cast as found in, say, The Ring (or even as good a bad cast as found in, say, Cabin Fever), this might have been a wonderful little sleeper. Liebesman uses light and dark like he's working with a palette. Given enough time, he could be approaching the talent of David Lynch or early David Fincher. But this dog may have killed his career off before it got off the ground. * ½

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TERRIBLE
Review: This movie was so terrible. The idea for the movie is actually retty good but the special efects and plot are terrible. Don't see it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: You know, you really can fall asleep with all the lights on
Review: In "Darkness Falls" the monster in the dark that is coming to get you is the tooth fairy. What you basically have here is a cross between the wrong person being killed a long time ago from "The Blair Witch Project," the creature that only comes out under certain circumstances from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies, and the white mask from the "Halloween" movies. Now, what made the first Freddy Kreuger movie work was that there were these clear cut rules that actually came into play with the climax of the film. But in "Darkness Falls" the rules really do not explain what is happening on screen and the gross violations kill any momentum that the story might be generating.

Because the town lynched an innocent woman she takes her revenge by coming after kids when they lose the last of their baby teeth. But she only comes after you if you take a peek and look at her when she comes at night, because otherwise the town of Darkness Falls would have nothing but pre-teens and adults who moved into town. At the beginning of the film she comes for young Kyle Walsh (Joshua Anderson) who had just lost his last tooth, but gets his mother instead. Kyle is institutionalized because it is assumed that he killed his mother, despite the lack of forensic evidence to support the idea, but also because he is now afraid of the dark. But little Caitlin Greene (Emily Browning) believes in Kyle and their paths cross several years later.

Now the problem is Michael (Lee Cormie), the young brother of Caitlin (Emma Caulfield), who can only sleep for about ten minutes at a time because he has been totally afraid of the dark for three weeks. Nobody thinks to just let the kid sleep with the lights on when he drops off from sheer exhaustion or to just knock him out with tranquilizers. Instead, Caitlin brings Kyle (Chaney Kley) back to the hometown where everybody thinks he murdered his mom to help. Kley's performance as the hero is pretty good for this particular genre, although Caulfield is not given anything substantive to do, which is a shame since you know the primary reason I checked out this 2003 film was that it had a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" cast member in it.

But once the lights start going out "Darkness Falls" starts to fail, big time. This is a film that offers no suspense (if the lights go out, the tooth fairy shows up) and no gore (she takes her victims away into the darkness, or, more accurately, the darker part of the darkness, otherwise we would never see anything). Then we get to the big finale and the rules go out the lighthouse window. Director Jonathan Liebesman is certainly competent, but the screenplay by John Fasano, James Vanderbilt, and Joseph Harris just presents too many problems with the story that there is nothing that can be done by the director or the actors to save this one in the end.


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