The Darkness (2016)
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| Pic by http://teaser-trailer.com |
Director: Greg Mclean
Writers: Shayne Armstrong, and Shane Krause
Cast: Kevin Bacon (Peter Taylor), Radha Mitchell (Bronny Taylor), David Mazouz (Michael Taylor), Lucy Fry (Stephanie Taylor), Matt Walsh (Gary Carter), Jennifer Morrison (Joy Carter), Parker Mack (Andrew Carter), Paul Reiser (Simon Richards), Ming -Na Wen (Wendy), and IIza Rosario (Gloria Ortega), Alma Martinez (Teresea Morales).
The film begins with a family of four vacationing with their friends, at the Grand Canyon. The family is cooking out. Peter Taylor (Kevin Bacon) and Gary Carter (Matt Walsh) are bringing up old times, while Bronny Taylor (Radha Mitchell) and Joy Carter (Jennifer Morrison) are making fun of their husbands, the day is wonderful, both families enjoying the time with each other, and not because of where they're located, but mostly because of the long time friendships with each other. Meanwhile the youths have their own plans, they're going to check out the rock formations; Michael Taylor (David Mazouz), Stephanie Taylor (Lucy Fry), Andrew Carter (Parker Mack).
Michael follows the older youths to the rock like formation not to far from the camp ground. Andrew and Stephanie go on their own, leaving Michael by himself. Autism has a way of catching the attention of people, understanding it, and knowing how to deal with it can be hard sometimes. Michael's sister knows this, she leaves him on his own accord. Stephanie goes off with Andrew, looking back one more time, making sure her brother is OK before they venture out, nearby. Michael has a way of just keeping himself occupied while ignoring everyone else, no matter what the cost. His attention is on Andrews watch, his attention leaves his sister, and focus on the watch, Michael drops the watch, it lands in a lower part of the rock formations, he slides, down, reaches for it and suddenly the rocks break beneath him, falling into a deep cave, large rock formations around him, he noticed something new, interesting, beneath the Grand Canyon. What Michael finds in the cave fascinates him, the stones, each etched with a symbol. A Crow, Buffalo, Snake, Coyote, and a Wolf. Michael's new prize, the stones call to him, as if someone wanted to reach for the stones, and take them far away. But, that is what Michael did, he had taken the stones from their resting place, a new prize is coming home with him.
Review: The story behind the evil is what i like the most. Anasazi or the "Ancient Ones" the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians. According to legend the stones hold back the Demons that are trapped within. The power here is that if the stones are removed, these Demons will cause a lot of craziness. The film does have a creepiness about it, it removes you from your current reality, it pulls you in the story using what i call humdrum scare tactics. It's not a Blair Witch, or anything like that. The film does give you scares and they're old school. Look at the way it established the evil, which by the way the effects were good, but not over the top. They went more into the searching for the truth scare, an old school scare tactic, not using effects but through the truths that the characters find. The shocking reveal to the unanswered questions. The older daughter Stephanie wasn't thrown around like a toy. What i liked was the way she blamed her brother for everything; Even if the mysterious hand prints appeared all over the blankets, and bed. Granted Michael is autistic, he is a challenge but even for him the prints were to crazy, and blaming the little brother was crazy all together, the special part about that scene was, she being scared, new something was up, but blaming her brother was her only release.
I liked the way Michael Taylor was drawn to the stones, he even made up a little imaginary friend. Was it autism or a spiritually event? The way the film makers handled the issue was done well, balance and story, a great effort that worked for the film. To many bad horror films play on our senses which is fine, but mostly it's done all wrong. You see because The Darkness did it all right, it did play on your senses, the magic of the film was the unanswered questions, the father searching for the hidden truths, and finally the mother not understanding the situations that are in play. What can go wrong? Where is the spirit? all those things are going in your head, while the film is playing; It really established an evil, but hoe to get rid or defeat the evil was a whole new problem, and it needed to be fixed, before their marriage, and everything that is loved vanishes forever. The focus here was the family, it had to either come together or die trying, period.
Horror movies are hard to review, because there are so many different pieces to try to put together in one film. Mama, Jason, Nightmare on Elmstreet. All great movies, different in many ways, some of the pieces are in common. The great evil can be Mama, Freddy, Jason, all of these films have the pieces that fit together nicely, but if not careful it could make the film disastrous. The Darkness has the Anasazi as the main backdrop, it holds well; But it also can be compared to the movies i mentioned as well. They all have a story, a backdrop which holds the film. Jason has killed so many he becomes a legend, or a story of a guy that kills teenagers in a campground. Freddy is the one who haunts your nightmares, but yet his backdrop would be the moment he was killed, burned by the people in that community. Mama is the spirit that was known in the woods, her story is told by word of mouth. These movies have so many things in common it's almost unreal. The purpose is to pull you in, scare you, and that's what they all achieved.
The Darkness film pulled off what i call a Rosemary's Baby moment. The moment you understand the film, and it's direction, you're at the point of no return, until a moment of uncertainty, and Pow! the film catches you off guard. That is the reason Rosemary's Baby (1968) did so well, and it continues to be one of the top horror films of all time. The Darkness reminded me of Rosemary's baby, not a whole lot of effects, the only thing the cast had was each other. When a movie can scare you by using cheap google articles about ancient legends, it really is impressive. That to me is a moment, a place, a time, where you could get scared by small amounts. The film told the story well, it moved, and that was it. The story was told, it wasn't over the top, didn't use special effects to the point where it would become boring or unbelievable. The film pulled off a scare, a personal moment, the one when you look at the staircase, your living room door, heard some creepy noise while watching the movie. The creaky sounds coming from the attic. That's a true horror film, it manages to play on the senses. Remember Rosemary's baby was made in 1968, but still manages to scare the hell out of people, why? because it delivers what most horror movies can't even come close to. The scare isn't about just what you see, but feel, hear, smell, and finally touch. The horrific moments isn't about a girl being dragged by an unseen creature, spirit, or Demon. The moment is when you thought something touched you, that goose bump feeling when a disturbing scene takes the screen, that's a true horror film.
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