Darkness Falls

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Once you get past the inherent silliness of the premise, what we've got here is actually a deft little chiller, stylishly directed despite the so-so cast.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Basically brings home the bacon for horror fans -- it offers decent special effects and a nice array of those moments where you shriek and jump and nearly pee your pants but it turns out to be Mom or the cat after all.

Film Threat Kevin Carr

If you’re looking for a compelling horror flick, don’t waste your time with Darkness Falls.

Boston Globe Janice Page

So much schlock and melodrama find their way into Darkness Falls that when an exasperated character shouts near the end ''All this over a [expletive] tooth!,'' you know how he feels.

Variety Joe Leydon

It's an instantly disposable and shamelessly derivative piece of work -- call it petit guignol, and you won't be far off the mark -- but first-time feature helmer Jonathan Liebesman shows a savvy flair for atmospheric visuals.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Stephen King without the snap, David Lynch without the kink, teen horror without the teen hormones, Darkness Falls falls apart in a crescendo of creepy-crawly hoo-ha. It's more like Darkness Kerplunks.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

You can barely tell what's going on half the time, but what you do see is effective.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

About as scary as a ride on a minor roller coaster, it unrolls its amplified butcher-block shock effects within the first five minutes.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Isn't satisfying or surprising. It doesn't even make sense from scene to scene.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The plot is as riddled with holes as Matilda's victims, making her sudden appearances more distracting than distressing.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paul West

A joyless amalgam of horror movie cliches, none used more exhaustively than the false alarm.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Its real problem is that Matilda Dixon, apparently conceived as a cross between the Blair Witch and Freddy Krueger, is an oddly characterless bogeyman, perhaps because she's 100 percent special effects technology with no actor underneath.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Not good enough to qualify as classic Gothic horror, not nearly fun enough to qualify as great B-movie camp.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

A cheesy horror film can offer a vicarious cheap thrill or two. Darkness Falls offers only a test of the patience, not even providing much chance to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of its villain.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Do you really need me to tell you how scary this horror show isn't?

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Dumb.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Oh, this is all so terribly not good.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Darkness Falls was formerly known as "Tooth Fairy," but could just as well have been titled "Dumb Then Dumber" for the way its plot makes decreasing sense even by the low standards of B horror flicks.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

God forgive me, but I worship the Bad Dialogue Fairy -- he gets me through these endless nights.

Entertainment Weekly Bruce Fretts

Darkness Falls is like something salvaged from Stephen King's wastebasket.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

A lamebrained attempt at horror that is just a derivative pastiche of ideas lifted from other bad films.

Chicago Reader Staff (not credited)

This moronic horror movie has the earmarks of a disastrous shoot patched up in editing.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Powered by dim bulbs on both sides of the camera, Darkness Falls barrels ahead with unrelenting stupidity, forsaking many of its own rules in search of the next cheap shock.

LA Weekly Dan Fienberg

Black cats, ill-timed power outages and children in peril are just a few of the hoary scare tactics ineffectively rendered in the style of so many films buried in the dark recesses of January.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Darkness Falls -- with a thud. But it does not go gently into the night, for director Jonathan Liebesman and his large crew cram as much style and energy as they can into a hokey and morbid supernatural thriller plot. It's a downer to see so much effort expended on such junk.

Village Voice Alex Pappademas

This is horror-flick boo-ya at its most rote.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A truly awful and extremely loud scareflick.