Darkness (2004)

Just what I expected

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Darkness is a slightly forgotten horror effort from the early 2000's thats worth a revisit or two due to it's nicely atmospheric, rain soaked dreariness and underplayed moments of psychological fright. It also doesn't paint it's plot points in bold, obnoxious strokes like a lot of ghost stories do, but keeps the terror on the ever present back burner while the characters are slowly, subtly affected by it, as opposed to having it thrust upon them, thereby forcing moments of pre orchestrated fright, and dull impacting instances of false acting too early in the plot. We watch, wait and wonder with these characters as something gradually takes hold over their previously controlled lives and pushes them to unnerving places. Anna Paquin, known best as Rogue from X Men, plays an American girl, transplanted to the gloomy Spanish countryside with her family to live in her father's childhood manor. Upon staying there a few days they are aware that something isn't right, when a malevolent force begins to cause strange behaviour, scary apparitions and flashbacks to the propertie's chilling past. Iain Glen, best known as Ser Jorah from Game Of Thrones and Dr. Isaacs from Resident Evil, plays her father so well that his transitions from loving father to withdrawn, traumatized shell of a man are upon us before we realize there's something not right right with him. He's an underrated actor and nails every switch of mood and character beat. Frequently intense Lena Olin (Romeo Is Bleeding, Remember Me) tones down the nutso as his confused wife. Excellent Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (Man On Fire, Casino Royale) proves once again his versatility and uncanny likability are truly something to draw us in, and in the spotlight of playing the freakiest character in the piece, still makes us chuckle at macabre jokes and side with him based on pure charisma alone. He's clearly read the 'opposites' chapter in Michael Shurtleff's Audition, and produces every nuance and thinking man's touch to his performance that he can roust up. This calls to mind stuff like Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now, The Changeling and other European style horror oddities of the past. It's got a leisurely yet grim pace, some really ambiguous scares (the best kind) and a style that's never in your face, always respecting of the audience, and forged with a love of Gothic style.

I saw this movie when it came out in the theaters in the United States and it was eerie then. I just watched it again. This movie is very clever and unique. It is nothing like Lovecraft and why someone brought that up I don't know. I understand it was toned down for American distribution. I found the subtle entry of the ghosts to be scary but I wouldn't consider the movie exactly a horror movie. It was more of an occult, supernatural thriller. The fact that the father is back into the house where a brutal ritual took place and he was part of it takes the focus to the dad being the antagonist of the film. That is revealed subtly near the end. Anna very ably does her part to uncover what is going on in the house but trusts the wrong person until realization sets in due to her father dying of a serious illness that affects his behavior and mood. Each time I have watched this I have been thoroughly entertained. I find no fault in it and those who like subtle slow build up supernatural thrillers will like this movie. It isn't like any other movie I have watched of its type and I have watched numerous. Why it is being panned is a puzzle to me.

It's another Re-watch, I seen this once before, On DVD, Well , I don't where that DVD went to anyway, but this was netflix so I gave it another go! I remember fews scenes from last time I seen, which was years ago! I thought Idea of the movie was really good, it had some decent setting, there could have been some really good moment here and there in this movie. Some scenes were decent however those scene didn't last to long, to be keep that tense feel to those scenes. I thought the movie worth watching, until the last 15 minutes, which I thought really bad, I didn't really think it fitted with the rest of the movie at all. 3 out of 10

All I can say is I'm glad I watched this for free on iPlayer, as the rain prevented me from going out in the garden and doing something productive, like picking up dog faeces, for example. This is labelled as a horror film, and it has all the requisite ingredients: haunted house, dysfunctional family, satanic rituals etc. But the only truly creepy thing about this film was the way the camera lingered a little-too hungrily on a barely-adolescent Anna Paquin who, throughout most of the film was dressed either in a swimming costume, or a t-shirt at least 2 sizes too small for her. I am surprised I made it to the end of this film before turning to something more interesting like scrubbing the bathroom floor, but I like to give things a chance. I'm afraid I was sorely disappointed. You'll probably like this film if you're easily scared by cheap jump shots, the occasional loud noise, and you suspend disbelief enough to ignore the plot holes, shocking acting, and the unpleasant semi-pederast themes.