Darkness Falls (2003) – Review

Where to watch Darkness Falls

1 1/2 Stars

Have we exhausted all horror premises that we must include the tooth fairy as a vile monster? That is just what the handsome looking, but cripplingly lame film Darkness Falls trots out. It seems that 100 years ago a sweet woman named Matilda Dixon, would give neighborhood children a small amount of money for every tooth they lost. This act of kindness earned Matilda the moniker,’tooth fairy.’ All was well, until a fire broke out in the Dixon home and savagely burnt Matilda’s body and face. Rendering her horrifically scarred, and outcast from the local community. After two children suddenly go missing, it is the towns folks that assume Matilda had something to do with the disappearance. So without due process they hanged the poor old lady. The tragedy is that she would be proven innocent after the fact when the kids were recovered shortly thereafter.

This is the set-up for the supernatural events happening in the town of Darkness Falls. Since the hanging of old Ms. Dixon, any child from the area that loses their last baby tooth will be visited by the ghostly entity and killed. As a young boy Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley) claimed to have seen the the tooth fairy and she tried to kill him. He got away with his life but his mother was murdered. Of course the local authorities have little interest in a story about ghost murders, so Kyle was deemed mentally unstable and sent to an institution to deal with his issues.

Now over a decade has past and the children of Darkness Falls are once again being terrorized by that same menacing spirit. Kyle has been summoned back to town to protect the younger brother of his childhood girlfriend Caitlin (Emma Caulfield). Leading Kyle into another deadly confrontation with the winged creature, that attacked him on that night 12 years ago.

Darkness Falls is an incredibly short film for a theatrically released feature. It’s running time is stated as 85 minutes but nearly 11 minutes of that total is dedicated to end credits. There is very little new to offer here, the actors are well cast but bland, the cinematography is lush but inconsequential and ultimately the film is unremarkable. Darkness Falls is more of an exercise in horror film conventions than a satisfying movie going experience. This is the lamest excuse for a horror movie in recent memory.

Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Stars: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie