Darkness Falls



Darkness Falls (2003) is probably one of the least effective horror movies I’ve seen recently.  It’s never scary, or disturbing, or even disgusting. It’s just kind of there. The surprisingly short running time is a small mercy.

The town of Darkness Falls (one town over from Cherry Falls, across the river from Twin Peaks) is haunted by a spirit known as the Tooth Fairy. In the mid-1840s she was a woman who would give children money for their lost teeth, but a fire scarred her for life and she began to stay in during the day, and only appeared in public wearing a porcelain mask. When two children disappeared in the town, she was unjustly blamed and hanged. After that she began haunting the town, appearing as a shadow wearing a mask, and grabbing any children who see her face… so long as it’s completely dark. Enjoy this back story; it’s where the screenwriters blew their wad.


"I wish I had my own Buffy spin-off. Then I wouldn't be doing crappy movies like this."

Kyle (Chaney Kley) saw the Tooth Fairy when he was a young boy, and it killed his mother. For the last two decades he’s managed stay out of Darkness Falls and always stay in the light, though everyone thinks he’s crazy. Now Caitlin (Emma Daulfield), a childhood friend, has a young son who also saw the Tooth Fairy, and she hopes the crazy guy can help her son get over his fear of the dark, which is roughly analogous to asking the Human Torch to help put out a fire at the oily rag and half-filled kerosene can museum.

Needless to say, Kyle is back in Darkness Falls only a few hours before he goes to a shadowy bar, and the Tooth Fairy begins stalking him. And of course Kyle escapes, but other people die, so Kyle is jailed on suspicion of murder. Did we mention that Darkness Falls is the unreliable incandescent bulb capital of the United States?


Scared yet?

Darkness Falls is just boring. The movie is never convincing because it’s never really dark, just movie dark. If it was really dark when the Tooth Fairy took people we would never see the Tooth Fairy at all. Clever handling can get around this limitation, like in Pitch Black (2000), but there is nothing clever about Darkness Falls. It was a troubled production, judging by the fact that the movie was delayed a whole year after being shot to replace the original creature design with a new one. The original design is below (courtesy of a Todd McFarlane action figure) while you can see the final one above.



I must say, I like the original one marginally better, though both do little to dispel the nagging feeling that Darkness Falls is a lame A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) rip-off.

Posted: Tue - September 21, 2004 at      

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