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American Carol, An Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Darkness
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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...
The average user rating for this movie is 2.8 (out of 10) based on 24 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.
Spawn of Satan gave it a10:
I loved this movie, its got to be the best ever!!
Jay D. gave it a1:
Pathetic - absolutely excruciating... I rented this on DVD & had to continually rewind parts just to understand what the heck was being said. It's almost as if the director didn't WANT you to understand the lines... but in retrospect, maybe they were trying to be merciful because trust me - there wasn't any substance there anyway. All in all, I'd say it was a shallow, cliche, noncohesive, incoherent, awful movie whose vigorously painful plot was out-done by its insultingly weak ending.
Movie_Lover gave it a0:
Oh my. Where to begin? This movie was possibly the farthest from a scary movie I've ever seen. It doesn't even compare to the Grudge and that was also a terrible movie. The theater was packed when I saw it and the only way people reacted, besides snoring, was laughing at the stupidity of the "Monday" "Tuesday" Subtitles. I wouldn't pay to see that movie again if it were the last movie on earth.
Ruby Q gave it a1:
If you could look past a rambling plot, poor acting, and strange, incoherent clips, you would still be struck by how unsympathetic and one dimensional the characters were. It was so torturous to watch that I hoped killing them would end the movie sooner.
D Cleve gave it a1:
By the looks of it, not many people have seen this movie- I don't blame them. This fim is straight from city dump cinemas. I found myself watching my watch more than the movie. This is one of those films that shouldn't have been made. While watching it, you get the feeling that this film was made simply because it could be. STAY AWAY!
Tony B. gave it a2:
I understood this movie completely. It made perfect sense ot me...it was just terrible. it's like they had 50 good ideas, and only fully executed one of them. And that was lighting...other than that, it's just bits and peices of good ideas that are never fully realized. It's wants to be seven types of movies, but never even makes it halfway into any genre. It wants to be an occult thriller, but has just enough occult talk to advance the plot...but not enough to seem real. If you've seen the preview...you've seen the movie. When they want you to be scared, and slip in quick cuts of children in a hallway, and some big guy in the hallway..and then you're supposed to be scared. This is a really bad film. it's not even fun bad, like House of the Dead. It's just bad. Soul crushingly terrible.
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