The Darkness

The Darkness. Where to begin? I guess with the facts, just the facts. (Some minor spoilers ahead) It’s directed by Greg McLean (known for Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek 2) and stars Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell. The Darkness is set in present day revolving around a family who comes back from vacation from the Grand Canyon and brings back more than they expected. Their autistic son unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil when he takes some sacred stones from an altar he found while exploring (alone I might add, way to go family). Sounds awesome, right?
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It had a great premise, but it falls apart in its execution. First off, the story is kind of disjointed. Apparently, the kid awakens these ancient spirits that the Anasazi kept at bay. These spirits apparently brought out the darkness in people before stealing kids and taking them back to their plane of existence or something crazy like that. It was never clear on whether or not they were trying to get into our world, or if their main goal was actually kidnapping. Who knows? The parents, played by Bacon and Mitchell are able to easily Google tons of information about what’s going on but still can’t seem to deal with it. Speaking of which, I want to know what kind of super-search engine terms they used, because they were able to pull up a mega-load of info on those demons easily. There was a slight time jump from when they return from vacation to when the actual story picks up. This time, jump wasn’t portrayed very well, which, if it had been might have made up for some of the following grievances I had with the film.  As previously mentioned, these entities bring about the darkness in humans for some reason, which manifests with the family by having the sister turn bulimic (although from what I could tell, she had always been bulimic, so I’m not sure if the entities had any real hand in that); driving the mother back to drinking after getting on the wagon; and have the husband fight off urges of infidelity. Wait…I thought I they demons were supposed to bring out the darkness? IF that was the case, then shouldn’t have given in to those urges? I have a confused.

On top of it, the acting was phoned in…from a shitty connection…on a broken down payphone. Some of the scenes which were supposed to be serious were laughable. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to snicker when Kevin Bacon tells his wife that he was sorry he had an affair all those years ago. Or was I? Was this film a sleeper comedy? Because if so, brilliant!
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The movie also suffers from a thing I like to call, fucking with people for no reason. Do spirits in scary movies just get off on scaring folks? Because sometimes, if you take out the creepy factor, things that occur in scary movies just don’t make sense. For example, in this film, there is a reoccurring theme where the faucets keep turning on by themselves. I can see how that would be unnerving and scary, but what is exactly happening? Are the ancient Anasazi demons impressed with modern plumbing? Do they keep turning the faucets on in amazement that it’s so easy to get water? Or are they just really thirsty? I don’t get it. 
Now on to some of the good aspects. The story premise is great. I love the ancient evil being kept at bay and finally breaking loose. It’s an idea I use in my own writing and great trope that works well. The demons or entities also looked great. I’m a sucker for Old West and Native American mythos, so it was interesting to see a different take on the subject. The five entities portraying the Raven, Snake, Coyote, Bison, and Wolf had a creepy vibe and a dark aesthetic. I also really enjoyed the angle of the autistic son. It’s invigorating to see more and more stories involving people with mental or physical challenges and how they interact with the world. I thought it was somewhat original to include such a character in a story like this (I know it’s not the first time) and I thought the writers did a good job. I don’t have any experience in my own life with autism, so I don’t know how accurate they portrayed the character, but from an outsider’s perspective, it seemed legit.
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All said and done, this movie kind of reminded me of the movie, Poltergeist (the original one, not the shitty remake). The similarities are kind of shocking.

Overall: 2 out of 5 sacred stones.
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