I hadn't seen the original so judged this on its own merits. And there's a lot to like. Firstly, the location was excellent, the house setting effectively creepy and the camera work patient and building. Secondly the acting was really pretty good, these were much more believable, self-assured and 'real' girls rather than Hollywood b- movie screamers. The pace of the film was measured, not frantic, the mood claustrophobic and cheap 'jump scares' were kept to a minimum. So to the weaknesses. A few times I'd wonder why they just didn't all just stay together for the first few nights or indeed why the friends just didn't leave, car or no car. Becker the cat simply wasn't unnerving enough, it looked bored and given the time may have opted to throw itself into the pool. Overall though the biggest weakness was that it just wasn't scary. The setting could have been used a lot more, more creakiness, more effects more subtle than just a blurred figure in the background or a menacing hand. On balance then I found it engaging and interesting, it isn't the best of the genre but represents a good effort with high production values. If it detracts from the original then that's a shame because there was probably enough quality here to come up with an alternative new plot.

I didn't had huge expectations for this movie, because Mexican horror films usually suck. Being a Mexican, I hate Mexican horror/suspense films, because one thing they don't have is horror. And with "Más Negro Que la Noche", a remake from an old Mexican classic, I prove my point again. I missed it when it was on theaters, and it seemed really good, but I'm thankful I didn't paid more than 30 pesos to rent it. This movie is full of horror clichés, but the movie takes these clichés to another level: A haunted house that looks like something horrible happened there, four unlikeable lead characters that are molded with the typical personalities; the actresses acted like it was a theater play instead of a horror movie, they overreact too much, and the scared faces or screaming were too fake, seems like they didn't even tried. 90 of the 100 minutes of the movie are so boring. Nothing happens during the whole movie, the script is so messy and forced, you wait for at least one character to die but nothing happens. All the "horror" you get is noises, random stuff moving, and a very annoying score that was all over the top, and it attempts to scare you but fails miserably. If you know the Mexican horror movie formula, you'll predict that this movie includes ghosts, a black cat, and an old lady that acts as poorly as the young cast. I recommend you to avoid this one! You'll lose 100 minutes of your time.

A girl inherits her aunt's mansion. She used to live there as a kid when she was adopted by the aunt when her parents and sister died. She later was sent to a boarding school. So she does what anyone else would do--move into the place with her three friends but not her boyfriend.There she's welcomed by the creepy and ultra-formal housekeeper. The only request by the aunt is the the niece take care of Becket the black cat. One of the girls has a pet ferret that doesn't get along with Becket. One night the ferret appears dead and the girl blames Becket and eventually will take vengeance.That's when things go awry. The mansion is about as stereotypical as it gets. Like a cheesy haunted house done by Disney. It looks large on the outside with lots of windows but all the rooms are tiny and dark. No sunlight gets in and even when people turn in the lights (which they rarely do), it's still pitchblack. There are spider webs everywhere, dust, mysterious rooms, old junk, pictures, a huge painting of the aunt, etc. So at this point everyone starts seeing, hearing, and dreaming scary stuff. The girl grows distant from her boyfriend and when they throw the lamest housewarming party ever, one of the other girls seduces him, even though or maybe because she's involved with the ugliest guy ever. More and more they start freaking out until we find out what exactly happened at the house years ago when the aunt was young and how that's similar to what is going in the present.Darker Than Night is unfortunately as bad a movie as the reviews and ratings indicate. It's got very little going for it: a cool title for a horror movie that's even more effective in Spanish; the cute Zuria Vega and the stunning Ona Casamiquela, and the performance by Margarita Sanz. That's it. The story is nothing special. And I haven't seen nor care to see the original. The characters are irrelevant, you couldn't care less about these people. For one hour and twenty minutes nothing particularly relevant happens aside from noises. And then when things get hectic it's not particularly impressive either. I saw the 2D version and I didn't see anything worthwhile for 3D. They could have done more with the idea, I'm not sure why they had such low aspirations.

I am hoping IMDb incorporates negative numbers for ratings because we had our share of really terrible films this year: "Bad Neighbors" and "This is Where I Leave" jump to the front of the list, but this film along with "The Wolf of Wall Street", "American Hustle", and "The Hurt Locker" deserve their own special section, and a rating of one is just much more than they should get.Where do we begin with this cinematic disaster? For starters, a big budget doesn't guarantee quality or talent. Ed Wood did wonders with nothing. At least he had imagination, and there have been a series of films throughout the last thirty years that have taken hand held cameras and used the talents of their writers and actors to give us some worthy entertainment. What is so sad is to see the waste of resources in films like these. Because that's the obvious part here: There was money to burn, and if anyone got burned it was us because we were led to think there was something worth watching somewhere inside this mess.First, we have a bunch of utterly talentless people "acting" in front of the camera. There is no way anyone in the audience can believe these people are even playing stupid. They look as lost as the audience because we can't figure out what is going on. If lots of special effects, mostly relegated to flashes of light, and plenty of creaking noises and crashing furniture is supposed to create an atmosphere of doom and darkness, we get hints of it, but after a while it is completely neutered by the abysmal performance and direction. Once in a while we see this furry thing from hell (and we're there, not the characters) jump around, supposedly to frighten us because it is not a regular cat, and he's coming back get them (not soon enough, mind you).Second, there are some gorgeous sets in here, and I wonder how many of them truly are sets, or it might have been some old, run down mansion that they just decided to use for sets or background. It does look spooky, and sadly, it only makes everything else about the terrible film, sub-zero performances, and missing script look even worse than they are, and they're terrible.Third, there is nothing wrong with dropping a few curses around, but when every sentence has one, I begin to wonder if the "writers" are even capable of thinking beyond concepts or simple monosyllables. As far as I understood, these people belong to the upper crust of society, and they're so foul mouthed, I was wondering exactly what they're supposed to represent. This is one of the worst problems in the film. No one is worth saving. I was hoping the maid would slash their throats in the first five minutes because if there was any filth here is all of the rich kids who stupidly do everything they can to become targets of "BECKET"!!! All we are given are drug addicts, spoiled brats, foul mouthed sluts, drunks, mentally impaired friends, and who knows what else they were trying to portray. This is a problem since there is no villain we can make any sense of, and there is no one who earns a bit of our support. The first thing they do is mistreat the lawyer and the maid.In addition to the lack of any talent, comparisons arise from the start. "The Orphanage" pops into mind immediately, and such amazing film becomes even better because the themes of family, destruction, and angry spirits are supposed to be buried somewhere in this horrible collection of wasted resources. Then we have "The Others" and their wonderful portrayal of lost souls, and we can continue with the list of predecessors such "The Legend of Hell House", "The Haunting", and even mini seconds of "The Exorcist", "Alien", and other films that honor the genre.Unfortunately, this is not the case here, just a frivolous attempt from a group of "performers, film makers, and producers" who found a way to finance a free vacation to some exotic location and left us, feeling cheated, angry, and in worse shape than BECKET!!! Remember, Becket came back and won the battle... just remember. We will up that one and just walk away and leave stranded next time you try to pull another one of these sad projects.