Darkness (2004)

          Summary: Reggie and her family have just moved into a new house, in a new country. Seems their house once was the site of a massacre of 6 kids and a 7th had escaped. But that child could never successfully lead police to the location. And so 40 years alter a new family moves in. But the ghosts of the kids are ever present and the originator of the massacre is still alive. And soon Reggie suspects something might not be right with her family members. Someone is gonna die.

          Overall: The film’s biggest problem is how confused it is with itself. It wants to be a ghost story that has some haunted house elements a=with some demonic possession, a serial killer and then throw in some devil worship. And with all that the film got confused and spilled this out.

          Let me give you some positives about this film. Get the unrated DVD version…it is 14 minutes longer, includes a lot more stuff (listed below) and actually helps a massive mess of a film get a teeny less muddled. At least the unrated version shows more of Reggie and her parents having issues which can help explain things. The problem with this film is basically...everyone (including the viewer) will be confused as to who and what is responsible. Start with this. The young kid Paul is getting attacked by ghostly kids. Only he can see them. Now the sister sees the bruises and is convinced the dad is going psychotic again and yet every time she tells someone what’s wrong...she then blames the house. Now we know the house is bad but she doesn’t. There are no scenes early on to convince her the house is bad…and yet she tells her mom Dad is the bad guy then tells her boyfriend the house is the bad guy. But she’s seen nothing to do this. In addition, the Dad has a history of going psycho and the moment he enters the house, he goes weird...starts to yell, do weird things and yet Mom refuses to acknowledge this...even though the evidence is obvious. So few scenes later dad goes psycho on mom, gets put into a hospital only for mom to go back into denial again, seconds after calling the ambulance herself. And later on again, we see the family in the hospital, Reggie with grandfather and he tells her the family won’t return to the house...no time elapsing...bam, the family is back into the house. Not transition shots or any idea why the magically showed up there.

          The writing gets worse from there. What plagued me as I watched this film is the decision to set the location of the film in Spain. This family bares interacts with anyone other than the grandfather and boyfriend. They’re only there 3 weeks once the film starts. And magically the girl is a member of the swim team, attending classes but the younger brother isn’t. They’ve barely unpacked the house and the dad has no job. Mom has a job which tires her out but she always appears to be at home. But given the setting, we never get an idea why they went there…in fact, why film this in Spain, of all places. You can label the beginning of the film as some U.S. city, and the film actually becomes better. We have no idea why they moved just when they did…outside of the fact we figure out whose house it is…but I mean that house could be in Idaho and all would work too. The whole point is, no one ever speaks Spanish and there is nothing about Spain that gets worked into the film. In fact, none of the 4 main characters…can speak Spanish.

          By the time the film ends…we realize the house has been built on top of some devilish sarcracial plot with tons of weird symbols…and yet our architect of this doom doesn’t actually end up in the house to kill anyone…nor do we get an explanation of why they still need to kill people nor why they did it in the first place. The eclipse works out as more of a red herring as the ending unfolds…and we still don’t know if the kids are real…figments of their imagination or even ghosts anymore.

          What a mess. And then to see it get cut into an 88 minute movie with little gore, no language and a PG-13 rating...? If a production company shelves a film for 2 years before release...you know it’s gonna be bad.

The following scenes were cut for the US theatrical version:
• After Maria (Lena Olin) and Regina (Anna Paquin) talk at the breakfast table about unpacking, there is extra dialogue in which Regina admits she hasn't decided if she is staying or not. Interestingly, Dimension cut all references to the family have these kind of domestic issues with the daughter.

• Following the first scene at the swimming pool, there is a brief scene where Regina is visited by her boyfriend Carlos (Fele Martinez) in the girls' locker room. They talk briefly about him coming over and she chastises him for sneaking into the locker room. A girl walks by in the background in a towel and no nudity is in the scene. When Mark (Iain Glen) is driving Paul (Stephan Enquist) to school, Paul asks, "Are you and Mom going to split up?" Mark responds by saying that "only families that don't get along split up."

• After Mark arrives home from the hospital, Regina has an argument with her mom on the front porch. The US version edits a section of dialogue where the mom says, "If you don't like it here than you can just get your things together and go."

• Following this fight, Regina visits Carlos in his apartment. She tells him about the argument while he develops photographs.

• Following her father's row with the electrician, there is an extra scene where Regina returns to her room where Carlos is painting. He surprises her by taking a photograph (during the flash the ghost children are seen; it figures in later). She says to him, "I'm staying." When Carlos asks why, Regina tells him not to ask her and only says, "I can't leave now."

• Regina and Carlos have additional dialogue before the scene where she tells him about her father condition at the swimming pool. She reiterates that he shouldn't ask her what is going on.

• During Mark's second attack when he begins cutting the potatoes franticly with the knife, there are a series of flashes back to his past. After he cuts his hand, there are several close ups of the bloody hand and blood dripping onto the floor.

• Two extra scenes appear back to back. One has Regina and Carlos in front of a computer looking up information and discovering "Ouroboros" and a website outlining some of the ritual. The other has the architect discovering the original letter with the design plans of the house while he is digging through papers. The US version cuts straight to Carlos and Regina in the library.

Comparison: Ninth Gate meets Sixth Sense

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