Review
DARKNESS
Starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin and Giancarlo Giannini
Co-written and directed by Jaume Balagueró
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’Tis a pity that the sight of Anna Paquin prancing around in skimpy cotton underthings isn’t sufficient reason to recommend a film, or Darkness might not have to rely so heavily on clichés to establish its merit as a horror film.
For all but the horniest X-Men fanatics, even Paquin’s pert presence here as a comely teenage damsel won’t relieve the distress one feels witnessing a musty story cobbled together from the exhumed remains of countless superior genre flicks.
Let’s see…. There’s an old, dark house with supernatural foundations (cf. The Haunting, The Amityville Horror, etc.), a sinister occult conspiracy involving ritualistic sacrifice (cf. Rosemary’s Baby), a mother in denial of her husband’s violent tendencies (cf. The Shining) and a precocious schoolboy who is not only keenly attuned to supernatural goings-on but can draw the creepy pictures to prove it (cf. The Sixth Sense, The Ring). Feh. That’s scarcely a complete list when you consider that Darkness also includes scenes of a spider-walking demon that are undoubtedly meant to represent some sort of homage to The Exorcist – if only it were ascertainable as to how or why.
I’m going to take a shot in the, ahem, dark to suggest that Darkness wishes to make us contemplate the nature of evil in much the same manner as William Friedkin’s landmark film. Unfortunately, it is neither viscerally shocking nor cerebrally disturbing enough to accomplish that feat. The closest it comes to making us question our metaphysical beliefs is a ridiculous mumbo-jumbo monologue spewed by Giancarlo Giannini’s character near the end of the film, in which he insinuates that evil flourishes most freely in the absence of love.
But, lest we find ourselves confused by metaphors, no matter how vaguely figurative, there’s a literal representation of the theme – in this case, a script telegraphed to emphasize the importance of a rare solar eclipse that takes place every 40 years. Darkness, get it? Yeesh. I’ve heard of foreshadowing, but this is just embarrassing.
In all fairness to Spanish director Jaume Balagueró, who also co-wrote the film, Darkness was reputedly re-edited by its North American distributor, and apparently to its detriment. Though the film is visually stylish and can, in certain respects, be favourably compared to Italian giallo thrillers of the 1970s, it generally comes up void.
But, sigh, it does at least have Anna Paquin to recommend it. |
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