Darkness Falls (2003)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Jonathan Liebesman

Writers (WGA):

Joe Harris (story)
John Fasano (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

24 January 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Every Legend Has Its Dark Side.

Plot:

A vengeful spirit has taken the form of the Tooth Fairy to exact vengeance on the town that lynched her 150 years earlier. Her only opposition is the only child, now grown up, who has survived her before.

Plot Keywords:

Tooth | Tooth Fairy | Darkness Falls | Light | Darkness

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Chaney Kley	...	Kyle Walsh
Emma Caulfield	...	Caitlin Greene
Lee Cormie	...	Michael Greene
Grant Piro	...	Larry Fleishman
Sullivan Stapleton	...	Officer Matt Henry
Steve Mouzakis	...	Dr. Peter Murphy
Peter Curtin	...	Dr. Travis
Kestie Morassi	...	Nurse Lauren
Jenny Lovell	...	Nurse Alexandra
John Stanton	...	Captain Thomas Henry
Angus Sampson	...	Raymond 'Ray' Winchester (as Angus Murray Lincoln Sampson)
Charlotte Rees	...	Marie Winchester
Joshua Anderson	...	Young Kyle Walsh
Emily Browning	...	Young Caitlin Greene
Rebecca McCauley	...	Margaret Walsh (Kyle's Mom)

Also Known As:

Don't Peek (USA) (working title)
The Ghost of Matilda Dixon (USA) (working title)
The Tooth Fairy: The Ghost of Matilda Dixon (USA) (working title)
Tooth Fairy (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for terror and horror images, and brief language.

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA | Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15PG (original rating) | Ireland:15 (video rating) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company:

Revolution Studios

Trivia:

According to FX creator Steve Wang, the original version of 'Tooth Fairy' was an Angel of Death, but when script changes came in, his winged and toothy creation was jettisoned. Actor Doug Jones originally played the Tooth Fairy in Wang's incredible makeup.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Wires clearly seen on Caitlin's back, when Michael falls in lighthouse sequence.

Quotes:

Officer Andy Batten: Is she gonna get me?
Kyle: Yes.

Movie Connections:

References "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1987/I)

Soundtrack:

Look Out Below

I enjoyed it more on my second viewing

Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley) returns to the small town of Darkness Falls to help his childhood girlfriend, Caitlin Greene (Emma Caulfield), whose brother is hospitalized with severe night terrors. It seems that a town legend of the "Tooth Fairy" is haunting his imagination, and Walsh had similar experiences. Is the "Tooth Fairy" more than just a childhood myth?

It's so much fun watching films multiple times. It's very rare that my opinion remains the same on a film from one viewing to the next. Sometimes my rating goes down, sometimes it goes up, and sometimes it stays the same, but I like or dislike the film for different reasons than I did on my first viewing. Darkness Falls (2003) is a case where my rating has gone up quite a bit since my last encounter with it. I think the difference this time was for two primary reasons--one, when I first saw this in the theater it was in the midst of a slew of horror films that had similar themes, and maybe I was getting tired of it by the time I watched this one, and two, I think the positive aspects worked well enough for me this time that I was more forgiving of the few flaws the film has.

And it does have flaws. Let's get those out of the way first. The main flaw for me was some of the super-fast editing during the horror "action" scenes. Occasionally it was so fast that I couldn't very well tell what was going on. However, I also realized this time that at least occasionally, the editing is perfect for the scene. For example, there is a scene set the small town police station that is inherently chaotic. Chaotic editing is the only thing that would fit.

The other flaw is that there are occasional lapses in plot logic. The most crucial for me occurred during the climax, where there were a couple actions taken that I was a bit confused about. It didn't help that the climax is also slightly marred with hyperactive editing.

However, in both of those cases, the good stuff far outweighed the bad for me. The villain in Darkness Falls is excellent in conception and design. The backstory is captivating. When it's initially told through a "slideshow" during the opening credits, I was thinking that I would have preferred them to give me a 10-minute historical prologue, but in retrospect, I'd prefer to see an entire film that's a prequel telling the villain's story. I loved the small town setting of the film, and the interactions of the characters in the script. They seemed like real people to me, with entwined pasts. I loved the three main characters, and thought their performances were very good. Since I'm a big Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan, that might have supplied Emma Caulfield with some unconscious bonus points, but I loved her acting here.

What really matters in a film like this is the horror material, and director Jonathan Liebesman handles it skillfully. Although I'm not usually a fan of modern films having shorter running times (it was more understandable back in the days of literal A and B films on the same bill at a theater), Darkness Falls is compact because there is little "dead time" between the suspenseful material. Liebesman only spends as much time as necessary with "serious drama" to amplify the horror. These types of scenes were handled well enough to make me either forget or not care if there were any rules broken when it comes to keeping the villain at bay.

Although I'm not someone who finds films scary, I can see Darkness Falls working for many viewers in terms of frights. Many primal fears are touched upon. There is an excellent extended bit in complete darkness (you only hear the soundtrack), and of course darkness and things coming out of the darkness is a major theme throughout. You also get scenes of claustrophobia, loss of control, elevators, hospitals, and many other situations that should work on more receptive viewers' sensibilities.

This one is worth seeing, but approach it more in the frame of mind of a fun roller-coaster ride than a literary masterpiece.