In terms of quality and diminishment, Greg Mclean’s Wolf Creek (2005) is to Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) what his The Darkness is to Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982). I mean that as someone who thinks Wolf Creek is pretty lousy and that Poltergeist is a depressing sidenote in Hooper’s career. Hopefully, this illustrates just how forgettable Mclean’s latest, The Darkness, really is. This entry into the subgenre of supernatural family-haunting flicks is best compared to Poltergeist, except it’s not on the level of Hooper’s corny original. It’s definitely closer to the 2015 remake you probably already forgot existed — a fate certain to befall The Darkness, too.
What I’m getting at here is that the movie’s bad, and no amount of Native American mythos, family-centric psychodrama nor Kevin Bacon is enough to save it. The premise is that, after a vacation to the Grand Canyon, Peter (Bacon) and Bronny’s (Radha Mitchell) autistic son, Michael (David Mazouz), has accidentally brought home an ancient, haunted rune from a forgotten cave. This little artifact starts to cause some minor problems at first — small things like faucets running for no reason — but slowly gets more sinister, with sooty handprints cropping up around the house and dogs that won’t stop barking at nothing. It’s not until part of the house catches fire that Peter and Bronny start to take things seriously and — thanks to some dramatically inert internet research — discover they’re being haunted by the spirits of the Anasazi.
There’s not much reason why, exactly, this family is being harassed by ancient, malevolent spirits, beyond the idea that they lost their rune. Of course, cause isn’t the focus here. It’s all about the spookiness which, unfortunately for us, never transpires. Mclean has zero knack for atmosphere — in fact, it always seems to be an afterthought. Instead, the scares (or the attempts at them) are of the cheapest variety, complete with musical stings and things jumping out from the shadows. It’s tactless, predictable horror.
To mitigate all this, Mclean has glazed the film in familial drama. Peter and Bronny’s marriage is struggling due to Peter’s past marital indiscretions, while their daughter, Stephanie (Lucy Fry, Vampire Academy), suffers from an eating disorder. While the notion of making this little haunted-house flick something more is admirable, Mclean doesn’t quite have the knack for it. Peter and Bronny’s marital strife works because Bacon and Mitchell have the talent to make it work, but the entire subplot about Stephanie’s eating disorder just comes and goes. Worse than all, though, is the way Michael’s autism is portrayed as pseudo-magical and mystical in a way that simply feels wrongheaded and insensitive. It’s a big misstep in a movie full of small ones. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some disturbing violence, brief sensuality and language.
I have to say that that top picture takes the prize for dopiest looking scared face ever. Kevin Bacon has done himself proud.
I think some of that is due to the impression that his eyebrows fly all the way up to his hairline, courtesy of the shadow cast by his frames.
Why do they keep making movies like this? Who attends them? I saw the previews for the Conjuring 2 last night, the endless repetition of jump scares accompanied by blasts of orchestral noise occurring with such metronomic regularity that even in the trailer I could anticipate each and every one.
They keep making them because they’re cheap to make and they make money.
Yes, I guess the real mystery is why I keep asking that question. I should know by now.
Lots of times it’s hard to understand why the audience for a lot of this exists. But I could say that about a lot of expensive movies, too…
Don’t be talking smack about James Wan, especially based on a trailer.
Scott Weinberg is the only one keeping this dud from a 0% on RT…and it makes me feel like an anti-fanboy who’s ticked that a movie he hates isn’t universally panned.
I don’t disagree with that, but I can’t say I’m jazzed about The Further Adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Guess it’s just me.
Well, I think they’re hucksters and frauds and these movies present them as the real deal. Then too, the first film didn’t stick with me at all.
Kevin Bacon kind of looks like Ellen in this.
He looks like he just realized what he’d signed on for.