STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

“Darkness” is yet another unremarkable tour through the rules and expectations of the modern horror genre – another film that’s not quite scary, not quite interesting, but a mindless diversion that plays its expected part in a cinematic transaction.

Actually, pouring over the film’s story, it is shockingly derivative and unoriginal. Perhaps this is why Dimension Pictures chose to sit on the film for years, only to release it over the Christmas weekend in hopes of targeting the counter culture who sought out blood this holiday season instead of, oh, “The Polar Express.”

Regina (Anna Paquin) is the film’s lead, empowered female, and the emotional core of her family. Mark (Iain Glen), her father, is a mentally instable man who has occasional “fits.” Maria (Lena Olin), her mother, is an enabler, ignoring the danger signs of her husband’s possible abusive side and insisting that everything’s okay.

And Paul (Stephan Enquist), her younger brother, is the target of the family’s new haunted house. You see, a number of children were killed near this house forty years ago, and now Paul starts seeing strange images, awaking with strange bruises and, thanks to director Juame Balaguero’s unsubtle changes of perspective, seeing the dead walking around his house.

Yet “Darkness” never becomes that far more interesting movie about a family’s psychology. Instead, it slowly deteriorates into the same old horror rut, about the occult, a solar eclipse, the need for a dead child, and the dawn of a new era of evil.

It’s part “Sixth Sense,” part “Rosemary’s Baby,” and part so many other thriller and horror films from recent years. But distinctly different, “Darkness” is not the least bit interested in this horror’s characters, devoting its energies instead to flashy directing tricks, a creepy soundtrack, and the constant sense of anticipation that helps so many horror films avoid any genuine scares.

Here, more than in most films, the climax never comes and the camerawork, which focuses devolves into purely shaky photography and flickering lights, is preposterous, signaling to all that “Darkness” has run out of ideas and has become desperate.

Be clear here, I’m not expecting a great film, just something scary. “Darkness” is not only random, unintelligent and unimaginative, but it doesn’t have any real scares, besides a few dark silhouettes and the prospect of an unbelievable parent turning on his kids.

It might have worked as a five-minute Halloween video, but its few tricks fade quickly in a feature-length film.

Truth be told, I yawned more than once.

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