Darkness Falls is a cheap PG-13 rated horror film that, despite its poor quality in story and direction, still made a fair amount at the box office ($47m on an $11m budget) only showing the studios are right to continue releasing these drab water-downed horror films.
Darkness Falls (2003)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Image | PG13 – 86 min. – $17.97 | October 18, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman
Writer(s): Joe Harris (story), John Fasano and James Vanderbilt and Joe Harris (screenplay)
Cast: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield
Theatrical Release Date: January 24, 2003
DISC INFO:
Features: Theatrical Trailer
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.35
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 2.0/5
Plot Outline: As a young boy, Kyle (CHANEY KLEY) claimed to have seen the tooth fairy. He also claimed she tried to kill him.
Now over twelve years later, Kyle has left the town that never believed him. He has also left behind the two people who thought he was telling the truth, his childhood girlfriend Caitlin (EMMA CAULFIELD) and her younger brother. And when evil again emerges to Darkness Falls, Kyle must return to do battle with the winged creature of doom he saw that night so many years ago. Because evil is back with a vengeance. And it’s not leaving without Caitlin’s brother.
Darkness Falls is the typical and quite average PG-13 horror film done on the cheap with a relatively unknown cast – the closest is Emma Caulfield who appeared on “Beverly Hills 90210” and “General Hospital” – and with a director with little to his credit in Jonathan Liebesman who would go on to direct the dreadful The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the overrated/overhyped Battle Los Angeles (and has Clash of the Titans 2 coming in 2012).
I’m not about to say the film is absolute trash, albeit there are moments that are just unintentionally funny, but as a whole it’s pretty average and minimalist with regards to the set design especially when the film, not surprisingly, takes place primarily at night and in the dark. However, despite the fact the majority of the film is in the dark, it’s not exactly scary nor is it thrilling, two factors which leads to a slightly below average and forgettable movie.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5
The disc only includes the theatrical trailer (1:56; HD).
VIDEO – 4.25/5
Image has given this catalogue title a really good and well detailed 1080p high-definition Blu-ray transfer. While there are some scenes, especially early on, that didn’t look the greatest with some signs of artifacting, but throughout the rest of the film, a good part of it taking place at night and in the darkness, was crisp and clear. I didn’t notice much in the way of dust or scratch marks so it seems at least some light work went into the transfer. As I stated, the detail levels on the faces and background objects was sharp with a fine amount of natural film grain.
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The disc comes with a fine 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track which has a fair amount of depth to it and shows off Brian Tyler’s suspense-filled score and the variety of screams we get from the tooth fairy’s victims. I can’t say that this is a great lossless track but it is fairly impressive given this is merely a quick catalogue title for Image (via Columbia Pictures).
OVERALL – 2.25/5
Overall, Darkness Falls is a cheap PG-13 rated horror film that, despite its poor quality in story and direction, still made a fair amount at the box office ($47m on an $11m budget) only showing the studios are right to continue releasing these drab water-downed horror films. Well, the movie might not be any good, but Image was released a Blu-ray with solid video and audio transfers so if you are a fan of the movie, then it might be worth picking up for less than $10.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 10/05/2011
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2.