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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
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66
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56
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Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Darkness
Dimension Films
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images, intense terror sequences, thematic elements and language
Starring
Anna Paquin,
Lena Olin,
Iain Glen,
Giancarlo Giannini,
Fele Martínez,
Stephan Enquist,
Fermín Reixach,
and
Francesc Pagés
When a family moves into a seemingly quaint country house they discover that their new home has a horrifying past that may threaten them.
| GENRE(S): |
Horror
|
Mystery
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Jaume Balagueró
Fernando de Felipe
Miguel Tejada-Flores (additional dialogue)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Jaume Balagueró
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 26, 2005
Video: April 26, 2005
Theatrical: December 25, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
102 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA / Spain |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The thriller makes up in moody weirdness what it lacks in horror-tale originality.

40
TV Guide
Ken Fox
All of this of course would be forgivable if it all added up to a scary movie or made even a lick of sense, but Balaguero manages to disappoint on all possible fronts.

30
Variety
Jonathan Holland
Though pic boasts decent perfs, potent atmospherics and eye-catching visuals, both psychology and plot are bargain-basement.

25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Horror at Christmas might work, but tedium doesn't.

25
Premiere
Kevin Allison
Apparently, none of the characters in Darkness have seen "The Shining."

25
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Darkness was clearly tossed together like salad in the editing room, since it's little more than the sum of its unshocking shock cuts.

20
LA Weekly
Chuck Wilson
Full of shuttery jump cuts set to music cues so loud your heart can't help but convulse, Darkness should have been left to molder in Miramax's vast vault of horror-movie stiffs.

20
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Some movies should never come to light, either, and Darkness, bearing a 2002 copyright, might well have been better left on the shelf.

20
Village Voice
David Blaylock
Rarely has a film's tagline been more fitting: "Some secrets should never come to light."

20
The Hollywood Reporter
Frank Scheck
The sketchy characterizations, laughable dialogue and less-than-stellar performances by the formidable cast, all of whom have done far better work in the past, provide further reasons why Darkness should never have seen the light of day.

20
Dallas Observer
Michael Fox
The performances of the Anglo cast are closer to catatonia than Catalonia.

10
Film Threat
Elias Sevada
It's just a murky, dark mess where no one wins. Especially those of us watching it. Simply put: Darkness fails. It's about as chilling as an unplugged refrigerator.

10
The New York Times
Ned Martel
The real mystery is why such a mangled film was not junked altogether.

10
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
It's not even bad enough to be any fun.

0
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Eurotrash for the new millennium.

0
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
Unoriginal, frequently incomprehensible and cheaply made.


The average user rating for this movie is 2.9 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mark B. gave it a2: Remember watching endless crummy 1960s Mexican vampire movies, Japanese giant lizard pix, Italian gladiator epics and polyglot secret agent thrillers on The Late, Late Show and becoming thoroughly convinced that no good genre movie could ever be made by people with vowels on the ends of their names? Hopefully we've all learned better by now, but this endless, Spanish-made horror pelota de queso could signify an immediate regression to that very limited and inaccurate mindset! A retread of the old house-that-doesn't-look-haunted-but-it-is plot, Darkness steals not only ideas and concepts but entire scenes wholecloth from The Shining, Poltergeist, Candyman, the original Amityville Horror, Final Destination and (insert favorite shocker here) but goes on forever with neverending setups and no scares; watching it is like hearing a soon-to-be-former friend tell the world's longest traveling salesman joke and then forgetting the punchline. Don't hold it against the cast: Anna Paquin, Lena Olin and Giancarlo Giannini are superb actors who give it everything they've got, which is infinitely more than what they're given. (Their work is the only reason this merits a 2.) Caveat emptor: if you slept through the PG-13 theatrical version this past winter, don't rent or buy the "uncut and unrated" DVD thinking you're going to be treated to some long-suppressed Lucio Fulci-type gorefest you were denied in theaters. It's not significantly bloody: it's unrated because the characters utter, mutter and scream a certain Anglo-Saxon vulgarism a lot more often than a PG-13 allows. You may find yourself using the same word a few times if you watch this.
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