Runtime:
92 minutes
Release
Date: May 13, 2016
Rating:
PG-13
Director:
Greg McLean
I had
the chance to see this movie at the drive in earlier this year but
was feeling sick and skipped it. I'm kind of glad I only paid a few
bucks to rent it.
The
Darkenss takes a family of four to the Grand Canyon. There's
workaholic Peter, his recovering alcoholic wife Bronny, their typical
teenage daughter, and their autistic son Mikey. As they have fun with
their friends, the friends' teenage son takes the other two on a
hike. Left alone, Mikey stumbles, falls through a hole in the ground,
and lands in an underground cavern. He finds weird black rocks that
have white symbols across the front and decides to take them home
without telling anyone.
This
naturally sets off a massive shit storm. Bronny gets irritated at
Mikey for constantly leaving the kitchen faucet on, but he tells her
that it was his new friend Jenny. He also makes comments about the
people on the ceiling. Stephanie, the daughter, sees dark handprints
on her bedroom walls, which she assumes is her brother being a pest.
Bronny experiences some strange things of her own, including finding
her son in the attic and him claiming that Jenny showed him a short
cut. They also discover small fires around the house that they
believe Mikey set.
As the
ghostly activity amps up, everyone starts acting differently. Bronny
finds that Stephanie started throwing up everything she ate and keeps
jugs of her vomit under the bed. We learn that Peter had an affair,
which makes his interactions with the new hot girl at the office a
little disturbing. Bronny finally breaks down and has a drink, which
leads to her full on falling off the wagon. After talking about their
problems with Peter's boss, Peter finally snaps and reveals that he
knew she started drinking again and that he just wants her to shut
up. With the help of the boss's wife though, they may finally find a
solution to their ghostly problems.
The cast
of The Darkness is really the best part about the film. Not only do
we get Kevin Bacon as Peter and Radha Mitchell as Bronny, but we also
get the hillarious Matt Walsh and gorgeous Jennifer Morrison as their
best friends at the beginning. Who doesn't love seeing Morrison and
Bacon together again after Stir of Echoes? Paul Reiser and Ming-na
then turn up as Peter's boss and the boss's wife.
Sadly,
the rest of the movie is just eh. The only scene that really got me
came when Stephanie was in the kitchen late at night and thought she
head something. You expect to see something pop up behind her when
she closes the refrigerator door, but it's actually just a flash of
something in the microwave as she walks through the room. That scene
was done so well that I wonder why the rest was so bad.
And,
don't get me started on the ending! It was like someone watched
Poltergeist, started writing a movie, and then gave up at the end.
It's literally a healing that causes Mikey to go through a ghostly
portal as his dad does everything to save him. The very-very end was
even worse and felt like some random TV movie ending.
Though
The Darkness wasn't the worst film, it felt like a retread of a movie
I've seen many, many, many times before.
No comments:
Post a Comment