Darkness (2002)

A teenage girl moves into a remote countryside house with her family, only to discover that their gloomy new home has a horrifying past that threatens to destroy the family.

Director:

Jaume Balagueró

Writers:

Jaume Balagueró, Fernando de Felipe

Stars:

Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Iain Glen

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Paquin	...	Regina
Lena Olin	...	Maria
Iain Glen	...	Mark
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Albert Rua
Fele Martínez	...	Carlos
Stephan Enquist	...	Paul
Fermí Reixach	...	Villalobos (as Fermi Reixach)
Francesc Pagès	...	Driver Traffic Jam
Craig Stevenson	...	Electrician
Paula Fernández	...	Girl 1
Gemma Lozano	...	Girl 2
Xavier Allepuz	...	Boy 1
Joseph Roberts	...	Boy 2
Marc Ferrando	...	Boy 3
Josh Gaeta	...	Boy 4

Storyline

There's something in this house... Something ancient and dark that remains still, hidden and silent. It can only wait, having been concealed in the shadows for years. In fact, its milieu is darkness. Only in it can it show itself and move. It even takes its name: DARKNESS. It's lived here since someone tried to call it, more than forty years ago. Because this house hides a secret, a terrible past, an inconceivably evil act... Seven children, faceless people, a circle that must be completed. And blood, lots of blood...

---

Plot Keywords:

9 year old | gramophone | supernatural horror | dead child | missing child | 

---

Taglines:

A house. A past. A secret. Will you dare enter?

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, intense terror sequences, thematic elements and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Jaume Balagueró attempted to recruit actress Natalie Portman to play the part of Regina, which eventually went to Anna Paquin.

---

Goofs

(Around 23 minutes into the movie) Regina comes down the stairs and sees that her dad has found a secret room under the stairs. Her father comes out holding a picture apparently very interested. Regina asks her father, "What's that?" looking at the space under the stairs. We then see a still frame where just barely, you can see Regina's father still in the space looking at the picture even though he had just stepped out of that area.

---

Quotes

Paul: I don't like the dark here, it keeps eating my pencils.

---

Alternate Versions

PG-13 version runs 88 minutes, while the Unrated version includes more violence, blood and language, and runs 102 minutes.

---

Connections

References Session 9 (2001)

User Reviews

The same old thing

In terms of its storyline, "Darkness" is pretty much like every other haunted house movie ever made. We start off with the usual unsuspecting family of four who find themselves knee deep in ghouls and ghosts the moment they move into their new residence (the family is American and the home is in Spain in this outing). Of course, anyone in his right mind would hightail it out the door two seconds after setting foot in the house - but not this group! They want to hang around to see what "happens." It is Oscar-winner Anna Paquin, as the moody but perceptive teenaged daughter of the clan, who gets to have her name above the title here - a dubious distinction at best, I'm sorry to say.

"Darkness" has just about all the standard accoutrement's one would expect to find in a film on this subject. In addition to the perpetual thunderstorm taking place outside and the electricity that keeps going out on cue, we also have the self-activating toys, the strange voices on the telephone, the ghostly images on photographs, the father who becomes exponentially more psychotic in every scene in which he appears, and the mysterious old man with the limp who shows up out of nowhere and seems to hold the key to everything. Seasoned veterans will be able to predict just about every hackneyed setup and cliché a full hour before it officially arrives on screen. For instance, we just know, without room for quibble, that the minute the mother brings home a box of colored pencils for her delighted little boy to play with, the tyke will start drawing strange and disturbing pictures to help push the plot points along. It's practically de rigueur when it comes to films in this vein. (However, I must say, in all fairness, that the movie does NOT include the cat-jumping-out-at-the-audience scene, which is pretty much standard issue for every horror flick these days. The filmmakers DO earn some bonus points for that).

Paquin makes for a feisty heroine, and it isn't really her fault that her character always seems to be ten giant steps behind the audience in figuring it all out. And as to the "What the *&$%?" ending - well, it's either so brilliant that it is beyond the ken of mere mortal man to figure out, or it's one of the biggest final curtain stumbles in horror movie history. I have my own personal notion as to which of those two it really is, but I'll let you figure that one out for yourself. After all, I have to leave you with SOMETHING interesting to do while you're watching this film.

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax [United States] Official Facebook

Country:

USA Spain

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Dark

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$10,600,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,400,000, 26 December 2004

Gross USA:

$22,163,442

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$33,988,736

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castelao Producciones, Dimension Films, Fantastic Factory (Filmax)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min 103 min (Unrated Version)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1