DARKNESS

An American family, father, mother, and two children, move to Spain. They move into an isolated country house, unaware that this gloomy and sinister dwelling hides a terrible past that will destroy their lives. The father Mark suffers again from strange mental disorders from which he seemed to have recovered. His crises increase in intensity the more days pass inside that house. The entire family suffers the consequences: the wife Maria, the little Paul, and the teenage daughter Regina, who is the only one who will try, helped by the friend Carlos, to solve the mystery behind the father's illness and that cursed house... Shot entirely in Spain and produced by Fantastic Factory of the duo Bryan Yuzna / Julio Fernández, "Darkness" is the second film directed by the promising Spanish director Jaume Balagueró, who had already made a name for himself with his debut film, the award-winning thriller-horror "Nameless". Needless to say, the film's basic idea - an isolated house haunted by dark presences - is one of the least original one can expect from a horror film, as is most of the story's elements (ghosts, dead children, satanic sects). But everything is mixed in a script that, although paying too much tax to narrative coherence, still manages to be sufficiently interesting and well written. The idea of describing darkness as the natural habitat of fear, as a living and autonomous entity, which gradually insinuates itself into the minds of the protagonists, frightening and clouding them until they are completely out of control, is particularly successful. The international cast is definitely of good level and includes, among others, an effective Giancarlo Giannini ("Hannibal", "Mimic") and the excellent Anna Paquin (Oscar winner for "The Piano" at only eleven years old!). Faced with a rather slow first part of presentation and preparation, the film gains momentum in the second half: the use of the camera frantic and almost convulsive, the continuous and sudden cuts of editing, the "accelerated" sequences of the appearances of the presences that populate the darkness make the final half hour of "Darkness" absolutely anguishing, scary, and full of suspense. Everything culminates (as already happened in "Nameless") in a black, disturbing, hopeless, and non-consoling ending, so rare to find in modern horror productions. "Darkness" may not remain in the history of the horror genre, but it manages to offer some true moments of anxiety and fear that make it absolutely appealing and definitely recommended.