Darkness Falls (2003)

A vengeful spirit has taken the form of the Tooth Fairy to exact vengeance on the town that lynched her 150 years earlier. Her only opposition is the only child, now grown up, who has survived her before.

Director:

Jonathan Liebesman

Writers:

Joe Harris (story), John Fasano (screenplay),

Stars:

Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chaney Kley	...	Kyle Walsh
Emma Caulfield	...	Caitlin Greene
Lee Cormie	...	Michael Greene
Grant Piro	...	Larry Fleishman
Sullivan Stapleton	...	Officer Matt Henry
Steve Mouzakis	...	Dr. Peter Murphy
Peter Curtin	...	Dr. Travis
Kestie Morassi	...	Nurse Lauren
Jenny Lovell	...	Nurse Alexandra
John Stanton	...	Captain Thomas Henry
Angus Sampson	...	Raymond 'Ray' Winchester (as Angus Murray Lincoln Sampson)
Charlotte Rees	...	Marie Winchester
Joshua Anderson	...	Young Kyle Walsh
Emily Browning	...	Young Caitlin Greene
Rebecca McCauley	...	Margaret Walsh (Kyle's Mom)

Storyline

In the 1800's there was a woman that little children would take their old teeth (ones they had recently lost) to in exchange for a gold coin. A few years later, tragedy struck her, first a fire in her house which caused her to not be able to go into any type of light, and then she was hanged. There's a story that goes around the town of Darkness Falls about her, and she's called the Tooth Fairy. The story goes that she can't go in the light, and if you wake up and see her, she'll kill you. The usual saying is "Don't Peek." Well, there is a boy named Kyle who gets a warning from his friend Caitlin to not peek. Well, he wakes up on the night when the Tooth Fairy is supposed to come and get his last tooth and sees her. It all leads to more tragedy and the movie jumps to 12 years later. Now grown up, Caitlin calls Kyle because her little brother Michael is going through the same things he did as a boy, and wants his help. Kyle goes back to Darkness Falls to face his past, and the woman in...

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Plot Keywords:

tooth | tooth fairy | boy | light | darkness | 

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Taglines:

Every Legend Has Its Dark Side.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for terror and horror images, and brief language

Details

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 January 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Don't Peek

Filming Locations:

Ballarat Street, Yarraville, Victoria, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$163,375 (Australia) (5 September 2003)

Gross:

$519,725 (Australia) (5 September 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Distant Corners Entertainment Group Inc., Blue Star Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min 96 min (Special Extended Blu-Ray Edition)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The sound of Matilda Dixon's wailing throughout the film is really the sound of an elderly woman's groaning in bed. The sound was both sped up in the parts where Matilda screams, and slowed down in the places where she gurgles and breathes heavily.

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Goofs

While Kyle is driving a car with no windshield, his hair doesn't move.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: It is said that over 150 years ago, in the town of Darkness Falls, Matilda Dixon was adored by all the children. Whenever they would lose a tooth they would bring it to her in exchange for a gold coin, earning her the name, the Toothfairy. But fate was not kind to Matilda. One night fire tore through her home leaving her face horribly scarred. Matilda's burned flesh was so sensitive to light she could only go out at night, always wearing a porcelain mask so no one could ever look ...

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Crazy Credits

The Revolution Studios logo is tinted brown to tie into the Matilda Dixon backstory opening scene.

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Connections

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Gunboat"
Written by Jamie Blake and Paul Andrews
Performed by Vixtrola
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Times Change

A couple of years ago, Teeny Bopper horror movies were the ones that made the most money. Now it seems that there has been a slight variation. Teens/people in their young 20ies are now pitted against mythical monsters instead. Jeepers Creepers was the first of these, and this Darkness Falls is the latest.

While I didn't enjoy Jeepers Creepers, I did actually find the sequel (Jeepers Creepers 2, if you didn't know) quite enjoyable. So a couple of weeks after renting JC2, I went back to the video store and saw Darkness. I had seen it on the shelves before, but back then it had not sparked my interest. But now, I rented it and along with some chips I went back to my house, hoping that this would be a good movie.

The first thing I noticed was that I had picked the wrong kind of chips. Then I popped the DVD into the player.

The plot is quite simple, and something we have heard a hundred times before. An old lady used to live in the city of Darkness Falls, about 150 years ago. The people around town used to call her the tooth fairy, cause she used to give children money when they had lost a tooth. One day, she was accused of having killed two children and was hanged by the townsfolk. With her last breath she cursed the town of Darkness Falls.

Fast-forward to present time, well, almost. Young Kyle Walsh has just lost the last of his child's teeth, and merrily hops into bed thinking he'll get some cash for it. Instead, the murderous tooth fairy emerges and, even though Kyle manages to escape by staying "in the light", his mother bites the dust.

Fastforward again, and we find Kyle, now in his early twenties, living alone, very disturbed by his constant nightmares of the tooth fairy. We learn that she is still haunting him, trying to kill him since he has seen her. But by staying out of the darkness and in the light (the tooth fairy cannot enter the light), he has survived. Kyle gets a phonecall from an old girlfriend from his childhood: Caitlin Greene, whose brother has the same symptons that Kyle has. Kyle goes back to the city of Darkness Falls, in hope of helping this poor kid out. But that's when the tooth fairy appears again, and kills, pretty much everyone who Kyle meets.

The beginning of the movie, where Young Kyle is attacked by the tooth fairy, is immensly scare and tense. Very well done. I loved it. Unfortunetly, after that the movie went downhill. Very downhill. The following 40 minutes has Kyle simply walking around, talking to folks in his old town, and telling his past to his ex, Caitlin. This part of the movie is OK. But about 50 minutes into the movie, we realize that this movie is utter garbage. Suddenly, what started as a very good horror film, has turned into somewhat of a... I don't really know what to call it. But Kyle travels from diffrent locations in the town at night, and meets about 20 diffrent people. All of which are killed off in. One each minute. It's awful. At this point of the movie, the plot is completly abandoned, and all we can comprehend is Kyle yelling "Stay in the light!" (Pitch Black, anyone?) and people being grabbed by the tooth fairy and dragged into the darkness.

It's to bad this movie turned into such a stinker. It had alot of promise. A cool villain, some good actors, a very nice soundtrack and some nice directing and editing (in the FIRST part of the movie). Bottomline is, don't even rent this film. If someone you know happens to own it, ask if you can watch the first ten minutes of it, then turn it off. Believe me, it's not worth watching the whole movie (even though it's only 82 minutes long, and that includes ending credits of ca: 11 minutes)

3 / 10.